XXXVl 



fore I stuffed paper soaked in prussic acid into the holes they 

 were entering, swept back the columns into heaps and cremated 

 them with paraffin and grass — a dreadful but natural death, 

 as a grass-fire, many miles in length, was even at that moment 

 sweeping across the plains below, destroying all life that failed 

 to escape in time. In a quarter of an hour of all that ordered 

 host only a few score individuals were visible and these were 

 wandering aimlessly hither and thither. I congratulated 

 myself on having punished them so severely that the survivors 

 would leave such an unhealthy locality. 



About 9 p.m., as I was reading, I became gradually conscious 

 of many small noises, making altogether quite a volume of 

 suppressed sound. Some time later on taking up the light 

 and going to my bedroom the reason was obvious. The white- 

 washed walls were a moving mass of Siafu; they swarmed 

 upon the books in the bookcase, over-ran other shelving, 

 chest of drawers, etc. The sound was made by the feet of 

 the countless multitude. Almost every minute some insect 

 fell from the ceiling with several Siafu clinging to it, only to 

 be set upon by the ants which were crossing the floor in lines 

 in every direction. In nine out of ten cases the prey was a 

 brown or green plant-bug [brown — Nezara chloris Westw. ; 

 green =^ Plaiacantha lutea Westw. : (Pentatomidae)], which, 

 since the cessation of the rains three weeks ago, has been 

 coming in to the house. They fly with a short buzz like a 

 bee, collide with some object and fall upon their backs, where, 

 on a cement floor, they are more helpless than a tortoise. 

 Till this evening I was quite unaware of the huge numbers of 

 them which had taken refuge in the house, hiding in cracks, 

 under boxes, amongst clothes, etc. When molested they 

 give forth the familiar and powerful odour of bugs, and this 

 instead of repelling seenaed to excite the Siafu, wliich hastened 

 to the spot from all directions. Soon the struggling bug was 

 lost to sight in a heap of Siafu which, having nipped off its 

 legs, would drag it along one of their lines of march. Although 

 the bugs were treated in this way, but few were taken to their 

 holes, and we swept up a hundred or so the following morning. 

 The atmosphere of the room reeked with their defensive ( ?) 

 odour. 



