78 SAVAGE SUDAN 



Near Jebel Ahmed Agha I wrote : "The ship 

 swarms with seroot. We are obliged either (i) to close 

 all doors and windows and then catch with butterfly- 

 nets all the seroots inboard which is hot work at noon ; 

 or (2) leave all open and live in a torrential draught. 

 The seroot combines the speed of a peregrine with the 

 sleuth of a weasel. Whereas the 

 common house-fly alights with a buzz 

 and a bump and then crawls, the 

 seroot settles silent and insidious and 

 goes to work at once. The victim is 

 unaware of his attack till the spear 

 pierces like a red-hot needle. His 

 energy and power of penetration 

 SEROOT amaze. He gets home his sting and 



draws blood within three seconds and, 

 if neglected, a serious sore results. A wash of ammonia, 

 however, avoids that. The common house-fly of these 

 parts also bites hard and can easily penetrate ordinary 

 stockings or flannel shirts." The latter terror belongs, 

 I have since learnt, to the genus Stomoxys, probably 

 of the species Calcitrans, L. 



A LION NOTE. 



On one of the nights of convalescence, as the breeze 

 held,. I was able to sit and smoke on the poop. 

 Suddenly, about ten o'clock, the stillness of night was 

 shocked by the splendid sonorous roar of a lion on the 

 bank hard by. Commencing with the usual soughing 

 "coughs," it developed into a series of deep-chested 

 explosive volleys that seemed to shake the very atmo- 

 sphere, magnificent in its expression of brute power. 

 Half an hour later we were favoured with a second 

 demonstration, this time longer and more varied. The 

 effect might well be described as musical to me, if it 

 be not sacrilege to say so, no earthly music impresses 



