318 SUNDRY INSECTS 



On a very calm and damp clouded day the air is filled 

 with the high piping of the Sami, hovering in myriads 

 in the shelter of bushes, and a sudden noise will cause 

 them all to rise suddenly upwards. It was very amusing 

 to sing a scale, for one note appeared especially to upset 

 the Sami, and when it was reached every member of 

 the hovering cloud would simultaneously leap an inch or 

 so upwards. The natives catch large numbers in baskets 

 like strawberry baskets made of plaited grass through 

 which a stick is passed ; the whole is vigorously waved 

 about in a cloud of Sami, the basket rotating around the 

 stick, which passes across its diameter. The catch is 

 compressed into a cake, but I do not know how it is 

 prepared for food. 



Sami have an odour of the lake which it is difficult 

 to describe — a smell like weeds and fish from a muddy 

 pool ; it is a common saying at Entebbe that the arrival 

 of clouds of these gnats produces an outbreak of nasal 

 catarrh among the white inhabitants ; possibly this is 

 of the nature of " hay fever." 



Spiders. 



The most noticeable fact about spiders on the islands 

 has been already recorded in the account of the tour 

 in 1914, namely, the extraordinary abundance on certain 

 islands of the huge Nephila, and the sheets of their webs. 

 It was noteworthy that on some of the islands the spider 

 was present in normal numbers only, as on Kibibi. Spiders, 

 generally, are called " Nabubi " by the Baganda. A 

 curious habit has been noticed in the case of a species, 

 making the typical " orb web." Over part of the web 

 it would spin a piece of very conspicuous, opaque, glisten- 

 ing white silk, which was visible from some distance 

 away. The design in the same web would be changed 

 from time to time, for sometimes there would be an 



