The scientific chaps called it Simiacine, because of an old African
legend which, like all those things, has a grain of truth in it.
The legend is, that the monkeys first found out the properties of
the leaf, and it is because they live on it that they are so strong.
Do you know that a gorilla's arm is not half so thick as yours, and
yet he would take you and snap your backbone across his knee; he
would bend a gun-barrel as you would bend a cane, merely by the turn
of his wrist. That is Simiacine. He can hang on to a tree with one
leg and tackle a leopard with his bare hands--that's Simiacine. At
home, in England and in Germany, they are only just beginning to
find out its properties; it seems that it can bring a man back to
life when he is more than half dead. There is no knowing what
children that are brought up on it may turn out to be; it may double
the power of the human brain--some think it will."

Jack Meredith was leaning forward, watching with a certain sense of
fascination the wild, disease-stricken face, listening to the man's
breathless periods. It seemed that the fear of death, which had
gotten hold of him, gave Victor Durnovo no time to pause for breath.

"Yes," said the Englishman, "yes, go on."

"There is practically no limit to the demand that there is for it.
At present the only way of obtaining it is through the natives, and
you know their manner of trading. They send a little packet down
from the interior, and it very often takes two months and more to
reach the buyer's hands. The money is sent back the same way, and
each man who fingers it keeps a little. The natives find the leaf
in the forests by the aid of trained monkeys, and only in very small
quantities. Do you follow me?"