GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



his head about and following my movements with 

 his large eyes and turning his neck round too, in a 

 most human way. That one I dared not touch, but 

 Ali took it away. After he had done it with no ap- 

 parent evil effects, I ventured to try and pick up 

 another I found on a plant ; he turned and eyed my 

 approaching hand, and then kicked so with his 

 strong hind legs, I left him there for the sake of 

 my poor nerves, though the praying mantis is 

 harmless. And spiders ! indeed the number of re- 

 pulsive insects seems endless. All sorts of spiders, 

 but one particularly large kind, on several occasions 

 visited my bedroom. Sleep was impossible till it was 

 expelled — by Ali and my husband and some of the 

 other boys. Of ants, too, there are any number ; 

 white ants destroying the houses ; maji-a-moto ants 

 which built large nests, dozens of them on one tree, 

 and insisted on making large trails, over which thou- 

 sands ran backwards and forwards, during the tour- 

 nament week, on the croquet lawn and badminton 

 courts at the Sports Clubs. They are a reddish ant, 

 with large big-headed black ones as soldiers. Several 

 of us got one or two up our ankles, and then we knew 

 why they are called maji-a-moto (hot or boiling 

 water) ants. Words cannot express the annoyance 

 of mosquitoes : somehow they find little holes in 

 one's mosquito curtains by which to enter, and night 

 after night we have had to light candles to hunt for 

 one which had got in, spoiling the sheets with grease 



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