xliv 



heaped grass around and fired it. Tlie sound of sizzling 

 Siafu no longer moves me, and I can look upon a dying soldier 

 ant with perfect equanimity. 



Then came the shock. In every direction from east and 

 south ants were arriving in countless thousands; they travel 

 a great deal underground, passing from one hole over a couple 

 of yards of surface and then down another hole, each entrance 

 guarded by a massed ring of soldiers. Quite thirty of these 

 steady streams were moving in the direction of the house. 



We fired the grass extensively wherever they happened 

 to be passing through it, heaped dried grass on all exposed 

 lines and set fire to it, so that they all hastened below ground. 



At 10 p.m. I searched the house but could not find a single 

 Siafu, but whilst standing on the extreme east end of the 

 verandah I could hear thousands of them in some dry grass 

 thirty feet away. Taking an acetylene lamp I examined the 

 broad path, but there were no visible tracks across it such 

 as they usually leave, and I am convinced that they had 

 reached their present position entirely by underground runs. 

 As for the grass and bush, every blade and leaf was being 

 systematically searched for prey; presumably the united 

 forces of all the Siafu were in this tinder-dry vegetation. 

 My enemy now lay entirely at my mercy, but, as it is easier 

 to light a fire in Africa than to put it out, I had to let them 

 go; for the belt of dry bush extended right away to some 

 dry standing crops two miles off, and though there was no 

 wind one might spring up at any minute. 



One of the most striking things was the entire absence of 

 Siafu from the house; not a single company had come for 

 the abundant meat-baits which had been left for them ; the 

 discipline and organisation of the army were beyond reproach. 



The effect of the search in the grass was to send a large 

 number of plant-bugs flying to the light, so I am inclined to 

 doubt whether the house was very much freer of them after 

 a couple of days than it was before their visit. Geckos 

 returned to their accustomed haunts, and their numbers do not 

 seem to have suffered appreciably. I heard one or two bats 

 in the roof reconnoitring, but do not know whether they have 

 yet returned to roost. 



