32 IN AFRICA 



allowed to touch the spar with your hands, hence 

 the difficulty of holding a difficult position. When 

 a man begins to waver the other redoubles his attack, 

 and slowly at first, but surely, the defeated gladia- 

 tor tumbles off the spar into a canvas stretched sev- 

 eral feet below. It is lots of fun, especially for the 

 spectator and the winner. 



Then, of course, there were other feats of intel- 

 lectual and physical prowess in the Woermann 

 competition, such as threading the needle, where 

 you run across the deck, thread a needle held by a 

 woman, and then drag her back to the starting 

 point. The woman usually, in the excitement of 

 the last spirited rush, falls over and is bodily 

 dragged several yards, squealing wildly and wav- 

 ing a couple of much agitated deck shoes, and so 

 forth. 



Similar to this contest is the one where the gen- 

 tleman dashes across the deck with several other 

 equally dashing gentlemen, kneels at the feet of a 

 woman who ties his necktie and then lights his cigar- 

 ette. The game is to see who can do this the quick- 

 est and get back to the starting place first. If you 

 have ever tried to light a cigarette in a terrible hurry 

 and on a windy deck, you will appreciate the ele 

 ments of uncertainty in the game. 



These deck sports served to amuse and divert 

 during the six days on the Indian Ocean, and then 

 the ship's chart said that we were almost at Mom- 

 basa. The theoretical stage of the lion hunt was 

 nearly over and it was now a matter of only a few 



