178 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
falo for a long time, and I thought it would be a nice 
thing if I could kill one. 
Querlaouen, Gambo, and Malaouen had been feasting 
on gorilla meat, though I had not. Not only had they 
feasted on it, but they had smoked a good deal of it to 
take back with them. 
The first day we kept quiet. The soil was sandy, 
the grass was very luxuriant, growing at least two feet 
high. The sun is very oppressive in these clear spots or 
little prairies. We were tormented terribly by flies; 
the country, of the Ovenga seems to be the paradise of 
flies. - During the day they often wear a man’s life out. 
They sting you, they suck your blood, and they plague 
you beyond expression. 
As for musquitoes, they were swarming at this time 
of the year, and I would defy any one to sleep at night 
without musquito-nets, unless his skin were bullet proof, 
or as hard as the skin of an elephant or hippopotamus; 
and as mine was not, I always carried with me a net 
made of the grass cloth of the interior. 
Three of these day-flies might have almost been call- 
ed the three plagues; in fact, in these parts there was al- 
ways some kind of insect to annoy one. 
Karly in the morning, just at sunrise, the zgooguat 
makes its appearance and only disappears when the sun 
becomes’too warm, as it does toward nine or ten o'clock. 
The igooguai is a small, almost imperceptible gnat, which 
appears in incredible numbers in the morning in certain 
regions. From ten o’clock it is seen no more till four, 
when its operations are recommenced, and last till sunset. 
It is a very, very small fly, which can hardly be 
noticed ; it might be called a sand-fly, and a dreadful 
