Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



187 



LUXURY IN AFRICAN SPORT. 



Mr. S. E. White, in the August Badminton, describes 

 the American in Africa and his difference from the 

 Englishman. A Britisher provides for an American who 

 would go on caravan into the African hack country as 

 many as a hundred and fifty men as his personal 

 attendants. The American explodes at the idea of 

 requiring this army 6i men to look after him. The 

 English friend ' explains : — " You are under the 

 Equator, and you must do things differently here. 

 As long as you keep fit you are safe, but if you get 

 run down a bit you'll go. You've got to do yourself 

 well, down here, rather better than you have to in 

 any other climate. You need all the comfort you can 

 get ; and you want to save yourself all you can." 



.\ FIVE-COURSE DINNER EVERV NIGHT. 



He finds that the style in which the Englishman 

 travels requires this large retinue. For example : — 



At evening our friend has a hot bath, a lonjj cool Cuz]y drink 

 of lime juice and soda ; he puts on the clean clothes laid out 

 for him, assumes soft mosquito boo;s, and sits down to dinner. 

 This is served to him in courses, and on enamel ware. Each 

 course has its proper-sized plate and cutlery. He starts with 

 soup, goes down through tinned whitebait or other fish, an 

 entree, a roast, perhaps a curry, a sweet and some coffee. He is 

 certainly being "done well," and he enjoys the comfort of it. 



THE A.MERICAN'S SIMPLER STV'LE. 



The American finds it a little galling to think that it 

 requires one hundred and fifty men to take care of 

 him, but your Englishman does not mind that ; he 

 enjoys being taken care of. The writer himself and 

 two friends were satisfied with only forty men, but he 

 >ayS' : — 



In essentials the Englishman is absolutely right. One cannot 

 camp in Afric.i as one would at home. The experimenter 

 would be dead in a month. In his .application of that principle, 

 however, he seems to the American point of view to overshoot. 

 He certainly does not need a five-course dinner every night, 

 nor a complete battery of cutlery, napery and tableware to 

 eat it from. Klour, sugar, oatmeal, tea and coffee, rice, 

 beans, onions, curry, dried fruits, a little bacon and some 

 dehydrated vegetables will do him very well indeed — with 

 what he can shoot. These will pack in waterproof bags 

 very comfortably. In addition to feeding himself well, he finds 

 he must not sleep ne.tt to the ground, he must have a hot bath 



• very day, but never a cold one, and he must shelter himself 

 .V ith a double tent against the sun. 



Otherwise the Englishman merely uses a basic prin- 

 ciple as an excuse to include sheer luxuries : — " The 

 Englishman in tiie field likes to approximate as closely 

 as may be his life in town, even if it takes one hundred 

 and fifty men to do it." Doing things differently he 

 calls " pigging it." 



The .-tHima/s' GiiarJiiin lor August contains an 

 open letter to the Archbiihop of Canterbury, by 

 Sidney Trist, appealing for the (Church's support for 

 the fuller protection of the lower creation. All 



• iiiimal lovers will a|>preciatr this vigorous little 

 magazine which holds a watching brief against cruelly 

 in any sliape or form in any part of the world. 



A MERRIE ENGLAND ONCE 

 MORE. 



The Revival of Morris-Dancing. 



Writing in the World's Work for August on Morris- 

 Dances and their recent revival, " Home Counties " 

 describes the recent performances at Kelmscott. 



Mrs. William Morris and Miss May Jforris, who live 

 at Kelmscott Manor, are warm supporters of the 

 movement for the revival of folk-dancing, and Mrs. 

 Robert Hobbs, Jun., also known as Miss May Elliot, 

 the pianist, arranged the meeting. There were dances 

 for men, dances for women, and dances for men and 

 women together. Mr. Cecil Sharp, who was present, 

 explained to " Home Counties " that the original view 

 as to the Moorish origin of the morris-dance will not 

 bear examination. The dance, in various forms, is 

 found pretty nearly all over Europe ; and wherever it 

 is found it is associated with other strange customs 

 quite independent of the dance, such as the mummer's 

 play and the sword-dance. The morris is a spectacular 

 dance, full of complex co-ordinated rhythms of hand 

 and foot, demanding the perfection of unstrained 

 muscular control. In the mummer's play the feeling^ 

 for drama is the determining factor ; while in the 

 sword-dance, with its elaborate dexterity of evolution, 

 its dramatic accompaniments of song and interlude, 

 we get drama and dance combined. Fifty years ago 

 morris-dancing was quite a common pastime, but of 

 late years various circumstances seem to have contri- 

 buted to its neglect. 



The enthusiasm with which the revival has been 

 received must impress everyone. It looks like filling 

 a place in the village which no recreative agency has 

 yet hit upon, says " Home Counties." Mr. Sharp is 

 for dancing because people like to dance, but he is also 

 for skilful and artistic work. In his enthusiasm he sees 

 the taste spreading through every class. Already folk- 

 dancing is making its way in the elementary schools. 

 At Stratford-on-Avon there is in August a summer 

 school where the art may be studied. Miss Mary Neal, 

 with the Esperance Club, has also done a great deal of 

 propagandist work. 



THE tlOMER OF INSECTS. 



This is the title given to ,M. Henri Kabrc, now 

 eighty-eight years of age, whose wonderful career is 

 sketched in the Lady's Realm. His parents were poor 

 farmers. The school through which he passed was 

 miserably inadcquule. Uut he had a love for animals, 

 and resolved to be free to stud>' them. ;\fter forty 

 years of hard work as teacher of mathematics and in 

 other ways, he at last secured suHk ient to keep him in 

 independence, and to secure a bit of barren wild where 

 he could walch his beloved liltle things, and wrilc the 

 slory ol their lives. Darwin de.scrilHil him as the 

 ii)com|>arable observer. Rostand calls him the savant 

 who thinks like a philosopher and writes like a puct. 



