EXCITEMENT A CURE FOR FEVER. 
235 
pleasant surprise to note tlie remarkable change the 
rains had worked in the aspect of the country during 
the last three months. Then, everything Avas dried up 
and in places the ground scorched and bare; now, the 
surrounding country was covered with fresh-grown 
grass from four to five feet in height, all the bush was 
bursting out in buds and leaves, and even the tops of 
the dry old baobab-tree were fairly well clothed with 
fresh verdure. It was a curious fact that the excite¬ 
ment attendant on our falling in with elephants made 
me feel fifty per cent, better, and the letting off of 
twenty drachms of powder drove my headache com¬ 
pletely away instead of aggravating it, and I am quite 
convinced that there is nothing like excitement to help 
one to throw off fever. The whole secret is not to 
give way to, but to struggle against the almost painful 
lassitude that succeeds an acute attack, for the more 
one gives in, the worse one feels. 
Before this adventure, we had quite despaired of 
falling in with elephants, believing that the higher 
forests of Kilima-njaro, which we had drawn blank, 
offered an only chance. Evidently the rains had 
brought them down, for I am positive there were none 
about here when we passed along towards Mandara’s, 
three months earlier. I wish we could have stayed 
here some little time longer, for, had we been able to 
do so, I am certain we should have got several more. 
In fact, IT- and Jackson, who returned here, when 
the rest of us had left for the coast, did get four 
including one good tusker, and fired at several others, 
