ABDI AND ABDULLAH 357 



For a day or two it was the wonder of the camp, 

 but he was quite unconscious of it. Music was in 

 his soul and the germ of love was churning it up. 

 And so he sang as he marched along, and his 

 thoughts were racing ahead of him to the "sing 

 sing" girls who wait in Nairobi for returning por- 

 ters with rupees to spend. 



The general average of health in the safari was 

 high. Only one porter died in the four months or 

 more that we were out. But in spite of the low mor- 

 tality there were many cases that came up for treat- 

 ment. Akeley, with his long experience as a hunter 

 and explorer, acted as the health department of the 

 camp. His three or four remedies for all ills were 

 quinine, calomel, witch-hazel, and zinc oxide ad- 

 hesive plaster. And it was simply amazing what 

 those four things could do when applied to the 

 naturally healthy constitutions of the blacks. He 

 cured a bowed tendon with witch-hazel and adhesive 

 plaster in three or four days. A white man would 

 have gone to a hospital for weeks. 



There were two common complaints. One was 

 fever, but the fiercest fever took to its heels when 

 charged by General Quinine and General Calomel. 

 The other and more common complaint rose from 

 abrasions and cuts. There was always a string of 

 porters lined up for treatment and each went away 

 happy with large pieces of adhesive plaster decorat- 

 ing his ebony skin. A simple piece of this plaster 

 cured the worst and most inflamed cut, and it was 

 seldom that a man came back for a second treat- 



