54 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



guardian the case of touching one end of a very long 

 rope, but could get no reasonable answer, any more 

 than a child can when he puts searching questions. 

 Violation of quarantine is a very serious offence. A 

 soldier would shoot a person without mercy, and with 

 the approbation of his superiors, if that appeared to 

 be the only way of preventing it. 



The nine or ten days' rest in quarantine at Syra 

 was by no means ungrateful. I made myself occu- 

 pation, and they passed pleasantly. The process of 

 giving "pratique " was amusing. We were drawn up 

 in a row, and the medical officer walked up and down 

 sternly scrutinising us. Then he gave the order of 

 " Put out your tongues," which we all did simultane- 

 ously, and he passed along the line at two paces 

 distance from it, looking at our tongues. Then he 

 added, " Do exactly as I do," whereupon he clapped 

 himself sharply under the left armpit with his right 

 hand, and under the right armpit with the left hand. 

 Similarly on the left and right groins. This was to 

 prove that none of the glandular swellings that give 

 the name of "bubonic" plague were there, otherwise 

 the pain of the performance would have been intoler- 

 able. Then, with a sudden change from a stern 

 aspect, he put on a most friendly and courteous smile, 

 and stepping forwards he shook each of us cordially 

 by the hand, and we were freed. A couple of days 

 had to pass before the next steamer started for Trieste, 

 which I occupied in rambling about the island, living 

 for one day almost wholly on figs which was unwise, 

 because too much of them affects the kidneys. 



I started with the steamer, had a few, but 

 memorable, hours at Athens, lay for two days in 



