118 WILD LIFE UNDER THE HQUATOR. 
tack with a fury which passes description. Where the 
soil is sandy, no bashikouay can be found. 
When they get hungry the long file spreads and 
scatters itself through the forest in a front line: how the 
order reaches from one extremity of the line to the other 
almost at the same time I can not tell. Then they at- 
tack and devour all that comes within their reach with a 
fury and voracity which is quite astonishing. As I have 
said, the elephant and gorilla fly before this attack; the 
leopard disappears from his den; the black men run 
away for their lives; for who would dare to stand still be- 
fore such an army? Ina very short time any adversary 
would be overpowered, and I am sure that in about two 
or three hours nothing would be left of the opposition. 
Antelopes which I have killed have been stripped of 
every bit of flesh in that time. At times, when they have 
spread themselves, they do not advance with rapidity, 
but seem to goin arambling sort of a way. 
It is said that now and then a man is put to death in 
the following manner. He is tied to a tree which is in 
the path of this bashikouay army. What a terrible 
death it must be! 
Every animal that lives on the line of march iia 
they have spread is pursued, and, though instinct seems 
to indicate the forthcoming danger, many are caught. 
In an incredibly short space of time the mouse, the in- 
sect, and many small animals are overwhelmed, killed, 
eaten, and their bare skeletons only remain. If they ever 
get into a fowl-house, it is all over with the fowls. The 
insects seem to be the greatest sufferers. The ants seem 
to understand and act upon the tactics of Napoleon, and 
concentrate with great speed their heaviest forces upon 
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