GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



town only the Java sparrow — such pretty little 

 birds who build in the holes in the walls. I had a 

 pair I could watch across a narrow passage, as they 

 built on the next house. They were imported into 

 Zanzibar by a Captain Ward in 1857. 



The Indians, I believe, imported, or perhaps en- 

 couraged only, the crow, of which there are any 

 number, of two kinds, one, the " parson " crow with 

 a white neckband, and another with a grey breast 

 and neck. Everything has to be kept hidden from 

 them, they are such thieves ; they would come into 

 my kitchen and steal my eggs even. Guinea-fowl 

 are to be got on the east of the island, and some 

 other birds near the water. 



Up in the camp there was a large sort of lizard, 

 about a foot and a half long, in the garden ; there 

 were several, till the men killed them ; a lady told 

 me one of the same sort attacked and killed her 

 little dog. The insects of Zanzibar seem particu- 

 larly repulsive. A few days after I entered my 

 house, a centipede fell with a clatter on to a brass 

 vase from the ceiling, and then ran away ; it was 

 quite near me, so I screamed to my husband to kill 

 it. Happily it did not fall on me — one lady had 

 footmarks for a long time on her back where one 

 had fallen and walked along ; if they are touched on 

 these occasions, they promptly dig all their feet firmly 

 into the rash person's flesh. Innumerable millipedes 

 crawl about the shambas, large ugly black loath- 



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