BOYS, INSECTS, AND CHICKENS 



the dead one ; so this one also he killed. Only 

 a few days before, when he was picking violets, 

 a snake rose from their midst and hissed at 

 him. 



Some people make lovely collections of butter- 

 flies, as there are some very beautiful specimens, 

 but as it entails much running about in the sun or 

 else chasing them in the close atmosphere of woods, 

 I did not follow their example. Every sort of ant 

 seems to find a home in Africa, from the tiny, tiny 

 ants which will suddenly appear in a long line 

 running up the leg of a table to get into the sugar 

 basin, to the large fighting ant of a reddish-brown 

 colour (siafu), which latter moves about in armies 

 of millions, clearing the place of every other vermin ; 

 they have even been known to kill a dog. Nothing 

 will turn them from the direction they wish to 

 go ; they send their scouts out, and big-headed 

 soldiers with tremendous jaws, which, if they bite 

 you, will have their bodies pulled off from their 

 heads before they will let go. The siafu pass 

 along in such numbers that they make a deep track, 

 and an endless line ; I have followed one up back- 

 wards till I was tired, and then did not discover 

 the rear. Sometimes they pass through a house ; 

 the only thing to be done then is to quietly wait 

 till they are all through ; they cannot be turned or 

 stopped. A lady told me her dog made a terrific 



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