30 
IN AFRICA 
ful lot of hard work. By the time the victor has 
won, the seat of the trousers of each of the two con¬ 
tending’ heroes has cleaned the deck until it shines— 
the deck, not the trousers. 
In a similar way the deck is benefited by the “are 
you there” game. Two men are blindfolded, armed 
with long paper clubs, and then lie at full length 
on the deck, with left hands clasped. One then says, 
“Are you there?” and when the other answers, “I 
am,” he makes a wild swat at where he thinks the 
other’s head to be. Of course, when the man says “I 
am,” he immediately gets his head as far away from 
where it was when he spoke as is possible while 
clasping his opponent’s hand. The “Are you there” 
man makes a wild swing and lands some place with 
a prodigious thump. He usually strikes the deck 
and seldom hits the head of the other man. If one 
of them hits the other’s head three times he wins. 
