286 SHOUT STALKS 



washing of pots and pans, or indeed of any ablutions at 

 all, lie could not see the necessity, because, as he said, 

 " They dirt themselves to-morrow." But besides this he 

 had the most muddled mind I ever encountered. Stand- 

 ing erect, among a chaos of utensils, on his shoulders an 

 old soiled blanket which he wore day and night, he would 

 slowly revolve on his axis with a vacant, searching ex- 

 pression on his face, while he vainly endeavoured to recall 

 where he had last mislaid the liandle of the frying-pan, 

 or some equally essential article. Why we kept him on 

 I do not know, except that he could never have found his 

 way back alone, and that we regarded him as a sort of 

 court fool, whom we carried for our amusement. His 

 pigeon English was certainly worth preserving. In reply 

 to a ravenous sportsman as to what he had got for dinner : 

 "I know; chickens. One chicken cooks you ; one chicken 

 eats men with pilaff; one chicken soups." "But, Jani, 

 we are getting rather tired of chickens." '' Buy sheep 

 upstairs" (on the mountain). "And how far may that be? " 

 " Two o'clock to another small country — half a street." 

 That is obscure, but we, who understood the workings 

 of his mind, knew that he meant, " two hours to the next 

 village — quite a short journey." At last, one day, he 

 disdained even the slight preparation indicated above, and 

 remained rolled up in his old blanket. When roused he 

 excused himself : " Something twist in stomick ; he very 

 smart." I save him a rousino- dose of castor oil and 

 essence of ginger, after wdiich, if not very smart, he was 

 ratlier smarter than l)efore. He had a private remedy 

 of his owai which he thus described : — " He makey very 

 hot rocks in fire ; one for belly, one for what you call 



