58 
IV. JULY, 1913— JANUARY, 1914 
while the hippos pushed their ugly heads out of the 
water and glared angrily across at us. In a quarter of 
an hour we had got out of the canal and were descending 
the narrow arm of the river, followed by a parting roar 
from the hippos. I vowed that never in future would 
I be so scrupulous about adding even two hours to a 
journey in order to get out of the way of these interest- 
ing animals, yet I should be sorry not to be able to 
look back on those wonderful minutes, uncomfortable 
though the experience seemed at the time. 
* 
* * 
Towards evening on November ist I was again called 
upon to go to N’Gomo. Mrs. Faure had, without think- 
ing, walked a few yards in the open without anything 
on her head, and was now prostrate with severe fever 
and other threatening symptoms. Truly my fellow- 
traveller on the Europe was right when he said 
that the sun was our great enemy. Here are some 
further examples : — 
A white man, working in a store, was resting after 
dinner with a ray of sunshine falling on his head through 
a hole in the roof about the size of a half-crown ; the 
result was high fever with delirium. 
Another lost his pith helmet when his boat was upset. 
As soon as he got on to the boat, which was floating 
away keel uppermost, he threw himself on his back and, 
anticipating danger, at once took off his coat and his 
shirt to protect his head with them. It was too late, 
however, and he got a bad sunstroke. 
The skipper of a small merchant vessel had to make 
some small repairs to the keel of his craft, which had 
been drawn up dry on land. While working at them he 
