NIGHT IN AFRICA. 33 



The air of the night-bird's wing fans your cheek, or you 

 are startled by his mournful note, ' wac-o-row, wac-o-row/ 

 sounding dolefully by no means so pleasantly as our 

 whip-poor-will. The armadillo creeps carelessly from his 

 hole, and, at slow place, makes for his feeding ground ; 

 the opossum climbs stealthily up the tree, and the little 

 ant-eater is out pitilessly marauding."* 



Dr Livingstone has sketched the following pleasing 

 picture of a midnight in the very heart of Africa ; but 

 romantic as the region is, it lacks the gorgeousiiess of 

 the South American forest : 



"We were close to the reeds, and could listen to the 

 strange sounds which we often heard there. By day I 

 had seen water-snakes putting up their heads and swim- 

 ming about. There were great numbers of others, which 

 had made little spoors all over the plains in search of the 

 fishes, among the tall grass of these flooded prairies ; 

 curious birds, too, jerked and wriggled among these reedy 

 masses, and we heard human-like voices and unearthly 

 sounds, with splash, guggle, jupp, as if rare fun were 

 going on in their uncouth haunts. At one time, some- 

 thing came near us, making a splashing like that of a 

 canoe or hippopotamus : thinking it to be the Makololo, 

 we got up, listened, and shouted ; then discharged a gun 

 several times, but the noise continued without intermission 

 for an hour."-|- 



If the sounds of night possess a romantic interest for. 



* Edwards's Voyage up the Amazon, p. 30. 

 ( Livingstone's Africa, p. 107. 

 C 



