26 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



these fried ants is their greasy taste, though this is the very 

 thing which causes them to be appreciated as a dehcacy by 

 the native palate. The crisp bodies have a remote resemblance 

 to shrimps. 



The colour of the ant-hill depends on the soil of the locality. 

 I have seen greyish-white hillocks where white clay was in the 

 soil, but more commonly the hill is formed of red earth. The 

 portion most recently built up is usually of a darker colour, 

 and is moist and soft ; but it hardens very e]uickly, and then a 

 heavy hartebeest antelope can stand on it without doing more 

 damage than if standing on an ordinary mound of earth. Old 

 or perished ant-hills are soon overgrown with grass, and very 

 frequently a tree or bush grows on the summit. The curious 

 shape of these hillocks shows that they are built very irre- 

 gularly, and not with the mathematical precision which is so 

 characteristic of bees. The white-ants met with in Uganda are 

 very different to those I saw in Mauritius. The ^Mauritian species 

 did not build lofty ant-hills, but usually a black ball-shaped mass 

 round some tree. The winged Mauritian insect which swarmed 

 at certain seasons was small, white, and soft-bodied, instead of 

 being large, black, and crisp-shelled, like the African. Birds used 

 TO gobble up the small Mauritian winged insect just as greedily, 

 as the natives do the black African variety. Snakes and other 

 creatures find at times a shelter in the air-passages which 

 traverse the ant-hill ; a squirrel I was chasing near Kinani 

 escaped me by diving into one of these tunnels. 



It is absolutely necessary for the traveller to have good 

 servants. In the most quiet home-life in England the servant 

 question crops up. But the traveller's welfare depends still 

 more on the sort of servants he engages ; they must be honest, 

 willing, sober, and healthy. If, some 800 or 1000 miles from 

 the coast, a servant is dismissed, it is next to impossible to 

 replace him. 



The illustration shows my last batch of servants or "boys," 

 as they are generally called ; and though, on the whole, 1 have 

 been unusually fortunate with my "boys," these four were the 

 best I ever had. 



They belonged to four ditierent nationalities : Mnyamwezi, 

 Arab, Wahima, and Swahili. As I had two rifles and two 

 guns, each boy had to carry one on the march. The Arab head- 

 boy had charge of my lield-glasses, revolver, and a handbag 



