186 REPTILES AND FISH 



place, I lit a lamp and found that a column of the " Safari 

 ant " {Dorylus) had directed its attention to that part 

 of the tent, but fortunately for my night's rest they did 

 not investigate my bed. 



The little grey Gecko, with discs on its toes enabling 

 it to run upside down on ceilings and walls, was not seen 

 in my huts on the islands, although common enough on 

 the mainland ; but I do not mean to state that it did not 

 exist on the islands. 



Tortoises. 



Like crocodiles, tortoises are less plentiful than might 

 be expected. The numerous isles of varying size furnish 

 abundant areas with marshy shore and shallow, rush- 

 grown water, which appear eminently suitable for water 

 tortoises, yet it was many months before I saw one — a 

 flat, black, short tailed Species that wanders about near 

 the water's edge. One species of land tortoise is occasion- 

 ally seen ; the natives call it " Enfudu," a name that 

 seems to carry with it a suggestion of blundering stupidity 

 not altogether foreign to a tortoise. It is somewhat 

 larger than the European species kept in gardens, and 

 has a high domed shell, with the anterior and posterior 

 portions of the ventral plate hinged so as to be capable 

 of a little movement. I once found a specimen that had 

 apparently been dropped from a height ; it was a large 

 one, and the highest part of the dome of the shell had 

 been fractured, a portion being depressed. It had probably 

 been destined to be eaten by some bird of prey, which had 

 been frightened away at my approach, for the blood on 

 the wound was still fresh. So there may be, after all, 

 some truth in the old legend which ascribes the death 

 of a Greek sage to the impact of a tortoise dropped upon 

 his bald head by a bird of prey, which mistook the shining 

 cranium for a stone ! 



