192 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER cH. 



and stamped agreement to bring you before a 

 tribunal, but you will eventually lose more than you 

 have temporarily gained. I think this reliance of 

 one man upon another breeds sincerity, and in- 

 sincerity is such a marked defect of all civilized life. 

 Then, in civilization, there is the almost universal 

 worship of wealth, the ceaseless striving for which 

 cannot bring out the best in a man's mind or body. 

 In the tropics, you may chance, if luck favours 

 you, to make enough to keep you in comparative 

 comfort for the rest of your days, but you have, 

 in most instances, to make it by healthy work in 

 the open, generally by the sweat of your brow, 

 and under conditions which give you leisure to 

 think. 



Lastly, there is the beautiful country and the sun ! 

 There may be some people who yearn for grey 

 skies ; the majority, I think, prefer the joy and 

 brightness of sunshine. Gorgeous flowers and 

 butterflies, that surpass in their tints the most 

 beautiful of enamels, song-birds that keep the 

 forests cheery with their music, the perpetual 

 laughter and chatter of natives, the mystery of the 

 lonely, uninhabited pori, the glorious moonshine and 

 the startling brilliance of the stars, the absolute 

 freedom from the noise of cities all go to create a 

 romantic atmosphere which seems to tinge the mind 

 and creep insidiously into the blood. The memory 



