146 THE LAND OF THE LION 
But these poor fellows must face their daily march, and, 
with sixty pounds on aching heads, keep up,as best they may. 
Soon as your tent is pitched, and wood and water have 
come in, tell the headman to call to you all who need 
“‘dowa”’ (medicine) — let it be understood at once that you 
will doctor their ills to the best of your ability, and that 
you will do so at a certain time, and your clinic will soon 
be fairly under way. When they come, let them tell their 
roundabout story in their own way. ‘They often bear, 
uncomplainingly, very severe pain, that they have had to 
grow accustomed to, while they make a fuss over a trifle. 
They will fearlessly and skilfully use a knife themselves — 
often a dirty-bladed one — in cutting out a thorn; but most of 
them grow evidently nervous if you have to produce a small 
lancet. Wehadagunbearer mauled byalion. Hemadeno 
outcry when the great teeth cut his arm and leg, he stoically 
endured, for six weeks, the pain of dressing, twice daily; 
‘but when a medical missionary produced a lancet, in order 
to open one of the great fang wounds, which had too soon 
superficially closed, though he was reduced to a skeleton, 
and had never been without a temperature for six weeks, 
he vaulted like a flash over the veranda railing where we 
were sitting, and distanced, over a very rough ground, too, 
a good runner who tried to catch him. Strained sinews 
and muscles, boils and blanes, fever, and above all, the 
natural and inevitable consequences of eating too much 
meat when they can get it, and eating it almost raw (indeed 
they never cook any food enough), these are their most 
common ills. Epsom salts, chlorodyne, in addition to a 
“Burroughs and Welcome” medicine chest, will be found 
useful to have at hand. 
Give them time, and close attention, when they come 
before you, with their disputes and grievances — you owe 
them so much, at least — and their point of view is often 
very interesting, and instructive, too. They have not, 
