MULTUM E PARVO. 



similar to those we had seen on the coast of the 

 province of Rio de Janeiro. We also observed 

 large trunks of trees pierced with deep holes, hav- 

 ing the appearance of filigree on a grand scale. 

 This, too, was probably the work of these de- 

 structive 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 cat- 

 tle are fain to submit to them, but even the most 

 gigantic animals, the elephants and rhinoceroses, 

 cannot stand before them. There is the ziwb 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 hunger. There is no resource for the 

 pastoral inhabitants but instantly to vacate the 

 country, and retire with their herds to their near- 

 est sands, where they will not be molested. This 

 they would do, though they knew that hostile 

 bands of robbers were waylaying them. Such is 

 the terror of a fly.t 



Quite as formidable in the southern portion of 

 the same continent is the dreaded tsetse, like the 

 zimb one of the T;ib;uii(];r, though a different 

 species. This insect, which is scarcely larger than 

 our house-fly, reigns over certain districts, attack- 

 ing 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, 



* Adalbert's " Travels," 11. p. 237. 

 + Bruce's "Travels," ii. p. 315. 

 109 



