110 MULTUM E PAKVO. 



holes, having the appearance of filigree on a grand scale. 

 This, too, was probably the work of these destructive 

 insects.'"* 



In Africa, there are flies which are the actual lords of 

 certain extensive districts, ruling with so absolute a sway, 

 that not only man and his cattle are fain to submit to 

 them, but even the most gigantic animals, the elephants 

 and rhinoceroses, cannot stand before them. There is the 

 zirrib of Abyssinia, the very sound of whose dreaded hum 

 sends the herds from their pastures, and makes them run 

 wildly about, till they drop with fatigue, fright, and hun- 

 ger. There is no resource for the pastoral inhabitants 

 but instantly to vacate the country, and retire with their 

 herds to their nearest sands, where they will not be mo- 

 lested. This they would do, though they knew that hos- 

 tile bands of robbers were waylaying them. Such is the 

 terror of a fly.f 



Quite as formidable in the southern portion of the 

 same continent is the dreaded tsetse, like the zvrrib one of 

 the Tabanidce, though a different species. This insect, 

 which is scarcely larger than our house-fly, reigns over 

 certain districts, attacking the domestic animals. Its 

 bite is certain death to the ox, horse, and dog; yet, 

 strange to say, it produces no serious inconvenience to 

 the human body, nor apparently to the wild game of 

 the country the buffaloes, giraffes, antelopes, and zebras, 

 which roam by millions over the same plains. 



The effect on the smitten beast is not immediate, nor 



* Adalbert's Travels, il, p. 237. f Bruce's Travels, ii., p. 315. 



