HYGIENIC HINTS. 



257 



of sedentary study, would practise walking bare- 

 headed in the Zanzibar sun : the result w^as con- 

 gestion of the brain. Others have paced bare- 

 footed upon an exposed terrace, with ulceration 

 of the legs and temporary lameness, as the total 

 results. The most successful in resisting the 

 miasma are they who tempt it the least, and the 

 best training for a long hungry march in these 

 lands is repose with good living. Man has then 

 stamina to work upon : he may exist, like the 

 camel, upon his own fat. Those who fine them- 

 selves down by exercise and abstinence before 

 such journeys commit the error of beginning 

 where they ought to end. 



We spent no happy time in the house of the 

 "Wali Meriko, who, luckily for us, was still absent 

 at Zanzibar. The Jemadar, seeing that we could do 

 nothing, took leave, committing us to Allah and 

 to Said bin Salim. The Banyans intended great 

 civility ; they would sit with us for hours, asking, 

 like Orientals, the silliest of questions, and think- 

 ing withal that they were making themselves 

 agreeable. Repose was out of the question. 

 During the day gnats and flies added another 

 sting to the horrors of fever : by night rats nib- 

 bled our feet ; mosquitos sang their songs of 

 triumph; and torturing thirst made the terrible 



VOL. II. 17 



