sad havoc
amongst the natives.

The human organism, especially that of a European, is beset by numerous
inconveniences which may generate illness; the burning sun, that seems
to cook one's brain; the cold nights and heavy dews; the violent storms
that quite suddenly break over your head, and the food that must be put
up with even when it is not actually hygienic.

For all this a strict regime, based upon moderation, is indispensable.

It is true that in my forest cabin I have an assortment of the best
wines and whiskies, notwithstanding the improbability of being able to
offer a glass to my friends, but those bottles remain well corked,
waiting for their legitimate owner to feel indisposed, when a draught of
their contents will restore his lost strength without resorting to
medicine.

* * * * *

The greatest dangers in the jungle are those which cannot be met with
impunity; those that render every defence inefficacious when a man is
taken unawares.

I speak of the tigers and panthers that are very numerous and audacious;
of the bears, that do not act so jocosely here as in our streets and
menageries but vie with other wild beasts in blood-thirstiness; of the
rhinoceros, the elephant, the terrible _sladan_, the wild dogs that,
fierce as wolves, wander about in large packs.

A dissertation upon the tiger and its like does not seem to me a
sufficiently interesting subject for my readers who will have seen, who
knows how many, at the fairs and museums and will have learnt their
character and habits from Natural History books or from the description
(not always correct) of someone who has only set foot on the land where
they live. I must, however, make special mention of the _sladan_, the
only survivor of an almost extinct fauna.

This animal belongs to the herbivorous class but is more ferocious than
any of the carnivorous species. It does not kill from hunger or for
self-defence, but for the mere sake of killing.

It is a sort of buffalo or bison with two very solid, strongly planted
horns on its thick-set head. This animal possesses such vigour and
agility as to enable it to attack victoriously all other wild beasts.
Only the elephant sometimes succeeds, with difficulty, in mastering it.

Its den is in the most remote and inaccessible parts of the forest and
by day and by night it scours the neighbourhood, rending the air with
its awful roars. One is never sure of not meeting it