24 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



" boiling-water." Their nests consist of a lot of leaves fastened 

 together with a sort of spider's web. These nests festoon shrubs 

 overhanging some shallow streamlet or marshy spot. The 

 incautious may shake such a branch as he passes under it. 

 Immediately he receives a shower of these warlike insects. 

 Their bite feels like a sharp burn, and whoever is attacked 

 beats a hasty retreat. As a rule, these ants leave the enemy as 

 soon as the enemy retreats and leaves them. But the one called 

 " siafu " by the Swahilies is not to be shaken off ; it never 

 lets go until it is killed. The " siafu " march along in their 

 millions. Fire alone will deter their army from proceeding 

 in the appointed direction ; and 1 know of more than one 

 case, where a man has burnt down his hut by accident whilst 

 attempting to repel an attack of " siafu." I have had to 

 run away from this tiny pest. One particular night on mv 

 hrst journey is impressed on my memory. I had stepped 

 beyond the camp-tires, when I thought, for the first moment, 

 that mosquitoes were bothering me ; but the next second I 

 rushed in a hurry back to my tent, stripped myself in a 

 twinkling, and called lustily for my servants to help me to 

 pick oft' these ants from all over my body. Their jaws still 

 clung with a death-grip, even when the bodies had been 

 wrenched oft'. 



The giant ants are usually seen in small colonies, diving in 

 and out of their subterranean tunnels. They never attempt to 

 molest the passer-by. 



The well known white-ant raises huge hillocks. The Egyp- 

 tian pyramids, compared with a man's stature, dwindle into 

 insignificance, if we compare the size of this insect with the 

 structure which it laboriously builds for itself ; the proportion 

 is simply stupendous. The white-ant hillock is a common 

 feature in an African landscape. The one represented lay along 

 the caravan route through Singo. 



Like bees, the termites have a queen, on whose welfare 

 the prosperity of the community depends. Hence it is a good 

 plan, when clearing oft' white-ants near a wooden building, 

 to endeavour if possible to find the queen and to destroy 

 her. She is quite helpless, with her fat body nearly two inches 

 long. Her attentive subjects usually keep her boxed up in a 

 sort of dome-shaped chamber, the entrance to which they block 

 up and hide at any approach of danger. The really destructive 



