92 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



went up to the watch-tower for it until that supply was ex- 

 hausted. 



" The path from the stockade to the village was in sight of 

 the stockade thi'oughout its length, and one day I noticed 

 Kasini minor, as he leisurely wandered down this mud em- 

 bankment, stop every now and then and behave in a peculiar 

 fashion, as though he were having conversation with the frogs, 

 snakes, and other denizens of the ditches that bordered the 

 path. When he had gone half-way he stopped and peeped up 

 into the branches of a small tree on the roadside ; then he 

 seemed to be striking blows at an invisible enemy, ran to the 

 ditch, and began throwing lump after lump of hard mud into 

 the tree. I had not seen this phase of his peculiarities before, 

 and could not make it out, but suddenly his arms went about 

 his head like the sails of a windmill, and I realised that his 

 enemies were bees or hornets, and that he was getting a good 

 deal the worst of an unequal fight. I sent some of the men 

 to fetch him back, and found he had been rather badly stung, 

 and, when I asked him why he attacked the nest, he said his 

 attention was caught by things liying out of the tree, and he 

 was impelled to throw at them. I understood that the hornets 

 flying out of the nest appeared to be thrown at him, and he 

 could not help imitating what he saw in the best way he 

 could, and so he took what was nearest his hand and sent it 

 flying back. 



" Kasini the elder was quite as susceptible as his name- 

 sake, but his comrades were a little shy of provoking him, as 

 they soon realised that his temper made the amusement 

 dangerous. One day they must have been teasing him, and 

 when he was allowed to recover his own will I suppose 

 their laughter made it evident to him that he had made him- 

 self ridiculous, for he suddenly ran to the arm-rack, and, seizing 

 a sword-bayonet, made for his tormentors with such evident 

 intention to use it that they precipitately fled, and in a few 

 seconds were making very good time across the swamp with 

 Kasim and the drawn sword far too close to be pleasant. I 

 had some difficulty in persuading him to abandon his purpose, 

 but after that, and a lecture, his comrades did not greatly 

 bother him. I remember, however, that on another occasion 

 we had secured and erected a long thin spar to serve as a flag- 

 staff, but the halyard jammed, and it seemed necessary to lower 

 the spar, when some one called out to Kasim the elder to 

 climb up it. Before I could interfere he had gone up two- 

 thirds of the height, and he only came down reluctantly. 

 Had he gone a few feet higher the pole would inevitably have 

 snapped, and he would have had a severe fall. 



" About this time a friend came and shared my loneliness 

 for a fortnight. He had had experience of UUali people before, 



