Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



questioned replied in a monosyllable, " Nyuki " 

 (bees). This explained the whole thing, and 

 soon a disorganized and demoralized mob shuffled 

 into camp in twos and threes. Eyes were 

 bunged up, noses twice their usual size, and 

 lips thickened to an appalling degree even for 

 a negro, and the possessors of the swollen organs 

 were all in a beastly bad temper. Their story 

 was that a large swarm of bees had been annoyed 

 by the singing of the porters (they often chant 

 in chorus to beguile the march) and had de- 

 scended upon them tooth and nail, going straight 

 for the faces of the men, who, without a moment's 

 hesitation, threw their boxes to the ground and 

 bounded off into the long grass and thence into 

 the river. Then the bees, not having taken 

 the trouble to pursue them very far, proceeded to 

 swarm all over the abandoned loads, so that, 

 on anyone approaching them, the insects were 

 up in arms again and ready for another engage- 

 ment. No one knew what to do, till a man 

 who had been in these parts before advocated 

 an attack with fire. Armed with burning bundles 

 of dried grass the porters made a determined 

 charge on the winged pests, with the result that 

 the insect army was completely defeated with 

 heavy loss. I have heard of two other exactly simi- 

 lar cases in which bees took charge of the loads 

 and could only be beaten off with fire. Bees are 

 exceedingly bad tempered if routed out of their 

 nests, and very persistent in their attacks. 



184 



