86 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



care in hutting, dressing, and diet should obviate any 

 evil effects of exposure. Springs of good water, and 

 wholesome food, are everywhere obtainable. Flies 

 and mosquitoes, the great Indian pests, are scarcely 

 known, and the tsetse of the south nowhere exists. 

 During the journey northwards, I always littered 

 down in a hut at night ; but the ticks bit me so hard, 

 and the anxiety to catch stars between the constantly 

 fleeting clouds, to take their altitudes, perhaps prey- 

 ing on my mind, kept me many whole nights con- 

 secutively without obtaining even as much as one 

 Avink of sleep a state of things I had once before 

 suffered from. But there really was no assignable 

 cause for this, unless weakness or feverishness could 

 create wakefulness, and then it would seem surpris- 

 ing that even during the day, or after much fatigue, 

 I rarely felt the slightest inclination to close my eyes. 

 Now, on returning, without anything to excite the 

 mind, and having always pitched the tent at night, I 

 enjoyed cooler nights and perfect rest. Of diseases, 

 the more common are remittent and intermittent 

 fevers, and these are the most important ones to 

 avoid, since they bring so many bad effects after 

 them. In the first place, they attack the brain, and 

 often deprive one of one's senses. Then there is no 

 rallying from the weakness they produce. A little 

 attack, which one would only laugh at in India, 

 prostrates you for a week or more, and this weakness 

 brings on other disorders : cramp, for instance, of the 



