With flash-light and rifle 



outfit of clothes is simple enough and suitable for the 

 purpose. It consists of a raw silk, earth-brown shirt, 

 open in front and with sleeves turned up to the elbows, 

 earth - colored trousers, strong, heavy, closely nailed 

 laced boots, two pairs of stockings, to keep the heat 

 out and also as protection against the insects, soft leg- 

 gings, and a broad-brimmed, well-ventilated felt hat. 

 I very seldom wear a straw or cloth helmet. The more 

 the clothes fade by use and the strong sunlight, so that 

 their color resembles that of the earth, the better for 

 the hunter, who will thus more easily escape the notice 

 of the keen-eyed animals of the steppe. 



My spectacles are absolutely necessary to complete 

 my full equipment. To be sure they give me the keen- 

 ness of vision with which my natives are endowed by 

 nature, but they often are also a source of irritation 

 and annoyance when they insist on becoming moist 

 and interfere with my vision in critical moments. 



I believe in total abstinence, and when travelling in 

 Africa I never use alcohol in any shape or form, except, 

 of course, for medicinal purposes. The small quantity 

 I carry I usually administer to others. Whenever I 

 use wine myself, as medicine, together with strophantus 

 and digitalis, it has a wonderful effect. My natives 

 carry for my own use boiled water in tight bags. When 

 my supply is exhausted, I have to shift like my natives 

 and drink, if need be, the liquid found in the marshes 

 of the steppe, which, through the admixture of organic 



334 



