ly TIMOB. . \ 483 



t V 



savaires ! I have been trviDj; 



to occupy myself constantly to divert me from tlie loneliness 

 6i my situation, but I am often helpless from fever." 

 • "My nights quite sleepless, I lie and listen for the return 

 of the thieves " [who had entered and robbed the house, and had 

 a second time in the middle of the night returned, decamp- 

 ing, however, on A/s calling out, and who, had she dared to 

 oppose them, would not have scrupled to put it beyond her 

 power to turn informant. When writing to me in the interior,- 

 with rare self-denial she restrained from telling me the state 

 of affairs at Fatunabaj, "and am consequently, daily niore aiid 

 more attacked with fever ; but I must make an effort to see to 

 the fire in the drying-house, where the herbarium arriving from 



[ 



" Long 



bout of fever: unable to do more than sit on the verandah; 



my 



<X tired 



of her duty, and forgets to come to me. I dare not expreifs 

 displeasure when she does come, lest she desert me utterly. 

 I carefully concealed from H. all mention of my loneliness and 

 of the old woman's defalcations, as it is of the greatest import- 

 ance that his mind should be free from anxiety on my account ; 

 but perhaps it had been wiser to tell him ; for I feel very ill, 

 and it is only the thought that these rare plants must be tended 



that keeps me on foot." 



[After another long break :] " At the point where my journal 

 is discontinued I quite succumbed to what was as much 

 nervous as malarial fever ; day after day attacks came on with 

 increasing force, while my powers to help myself became 

 decreased. The old woman at last would not come near me ; 

 by signs and much talking she indicated that she would be 



tabooed by her own people if she stayed by a sick person." 

 [She doubtless feared that she might be thought a Swangi or 

 Disease-producer.] « I had then to fall back entirely on myself, 

 as she would not carry any message for me to Dilly. Fortu- 

 nately there was a store of water in our large stone tank, and 

 my small paraffin-stove was fuU of oil. In a stronger hour I.. 

 dragged some boxes in front of my bed, and placed withm reach 

 rice, salt and some vessels. Eggs in abundance must have, 

 been within a few hundred yards of me in nests among the 



grass, to w 



our few fowls, but I dared 



