WILD HUNTING COMPANIONS 163 



When, during our descent of the unknown 

 river, we reached the first rubber man's house 

 he expressed with curious eloquence the feel- 

 ing we all had at hearing around us again the 

 voices of men and women, and knowing that 

 the chance of utter disaster was over; instead 

 of camping at night in the midst of dangerous 

 rapids, while every hour of the day carried its 

 menace, and there always loomed ahead the 

 danger of death in any one of a dozen possible 

 ways, from famine to fever and dysentery, and 

 from drowning to battle with Indians. When 

 we reached the first rubber-gatherer's store the 

 delicacy which all our men most eagerly coveted 

 was condensed milk, and to my amused horror 

 they solemnly proceeded each to eat a canful 

 of the sweet and sticky luxury. 



Of all my wilder hunting companions those 

 to whom I became most attached — although 

 some of them were the wildest of all — were those 

 Kermit and I had with us in Africa for eleven 

 months. Disregarding a very problematical 

 Christian, these were either Mohammedans or 

 heathens. However, after having been in our 

 employ a little while, and after having adopted 

 the fez, jersey, and short trousers — and, as a 

 matter of pure pride and symbolism, boots — 

 they all regarded themselves as of an elevated 



