CHAPTER XVI 



AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGY 



Mr. G. Talbot, F.E.S., Curator of The Hill Museum of Lepidoptera^ 

 Witley, Surrey, has very kindly assisted me in the composition of this chapter, also 

 in the arranging of the plates, and my thanks are also due to him for participating 

 in revising the manuscript of this book. 



THEY say that the first collector of butterflies and 

 moths was a woman and that the " poor deluded 

 creature," being thought insane, was therefore clapped 

 into a mad-house by her relatives. This story rather appeals 

 to me and is no doubt perfectly true, for even in these modern 

 days an entomologist when outside his laboratory and chasing 

 an insect across a field is dubbed as a " little bit touched, you 

 know — poor chap ! " or " has a screw loose somewhere, rather 

 sad in one so young ! " 



In the course of my search for insects in Africa I have 

 had some curious and often dangerous — too dangerous — 

 experiences. In the first place, I have always been looked 

 on as mad, and in some cases whole villages have fled at my 

 approach, whilst in others the natives have come up to 

 " boo " at the " mad Bwana " out collecting, to see what the 

 effect was, afterwards running away. By the medicine men 

 and native sorcerers, however, I was always treated with the 

 greatest respect and regarded by them as a fellow-member 

 of their great brotherhood of bluff. In a fishing country 

 I have been taken as a fisherman out to net fish with my 

 bottles of bait, and elsewhere as a bird-catcher. 



Hunting insects, like hunting animals, takes the collector 

 far afield, and I have on many occasions been confronted 



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