During the sleeping hours this force worked steadily in conjunction with other remedies, and when Orondo awoke in the afternoon, he was rational and without fever. Noting his condition, the magnet was removed, and the patient lifted once more into the hammock, where he was thoroughly sponged with alcohol and water. After this, his throat, chest, and shoulders were vigorously rubbed with warm olive oil, perfumed with lavender. The odors of plants are antiseptic, and were much employed in sick rooms by the ancients. While the physicians were busy, the tamanes in attendance changed the pallet and linen completely. Placing Orondo in it again and setting a lavender spray in motion near the window, they retired to bring in a lacquered tray of food. Freshly baked tortillas, young leeks, and pickled olives, with salted almonds and dried figs formed the principal part of the meal, while a dish of fresh cocoanut and oranges, sliced together, served for dessert. The tray and dishes had scarcely been removed before Setos came bustling in. Sanitation was his hobby, and he was always urging the necessity for legislation against disease, which he considered was the result of criminal carelessness. In Tlamco every bit of refuse was carefully collected and burned each day. A large section of the water-front, where the prevailing winds carried the smoke and odor well out to sea, was reserved for this purpose. The flood-gates of the entire water system were opened during certain hours of the night and all the waste canals cleansed thoroughly. “By Him who is the breath of every living thing, tell me how affliction befell thee?” asked Setos, sitting down on the bed near the foot and searching Orondo’s face anxiously. “By the only method possible,” answered Orondo. “Because I have violated the laws of harmony.” “This is bad, very bad! It gives less favored men an excuse to neglect their bodies in an unwarrantable manner,” said Setos, warming up to his favorite theme. “If we could only send out an army to teach the people the possibilities of water, the difference between good and bad food, the necessity for proper rest, the inexorableness of natural laws, disease would become what it was intended to be—a brief, infrequent, reparative process.” He pursed up his lips and sniffed loudly in self-satisfaction. It was so seldom that he had an opportunity to fittingly repeat this homily. “I think that our laws are strictly and justly administered in this respect,” ventured Orondo. “The advocates and healers are supported by the state. Self-interest prompts the latter to report disease as they find it. They know enough of law to name the penalty attached to hereditary and contagious diseases. The advocates know enough of healing to detect symptoms of forbidden maladies. It is a capital offense for either party to conceal conditions of this kind. I do not see what more can be done.”