Village Life in Pongo-land. 169 
biting the circumorbital parts. The numbers and 
minuteness of this insect make it formidable. The 
people flap their naked shoulders with cloths or 
bushy twigs; Nigerian travellers have tried palm 
oil but with scant success, and spirits of wine 
applied to the skin somewhat alleviate the itching 
but has no prophylactic effect. Sandflies do not 
venture into the dark huts, and a “ smudge ” keeps 
them aloof, but the disease is more tolerable than 
the remedy of inflaming the eyes with acrid 
smoke and of sitting in a close box, by courtesy 
termed a room, when the fine pure air makes one 
pine to be beyond walls. After long endurance 
in hopes of becoming inoculated with the virus, I 
was compelled to defend myself with thick gloves, 
stockings and a muslin veil made fast to the hat 
and tucked in under the shirt. After sunset the 
sandflies retire, and the mosquito sounds her 
hideous trump; as has been said, however, Pongo- 
land knows how to receive her. 
SWORD FROM THE INTERIOR. 
