THE TSETSE FLY 251 



Kreish religion is one of free drinks for the wily 

 ones. 



In the Mongaiyat I suffered, as I hope never again to 

 do, from the tsetse fly. Into one's nostrils, ears, up the 

 back and sleeves of one's coat, down the neck of it — 

 everywhere that an entry could be made, these pests 

 penetrate. Gulliver, shot at by the arrows of the 

 Lilliputians, was not in a worse case than we. The 

 irritation was so great that at times I positively screamed. 

 In the triangle, with its apex at Wau, and its feet on 

 Kafiakingi and the Busseiri, I met them everywhere — 

 at all places bad, but in the Mongaiyat worst of all. 

 I believe I am wrong in my denial of ''belts" of fly. 

 This much I know, I have met them on lowland and 

 highland, on marsh and dryland, near villages and in 

 the heart of the forest. One march from place to place 

 has been made a penance by them ; another, over the 

 same ground, knew them not. When I arrived at 

 Wau the nearest fly was at the Pongo River : when I 

 left, eighteen months later, one caught them in the 

 very station. Domestic animals of all sorts die from 

 their poison. Fortunately, it is of the Glossina morsitans 

 I speak, not the dread paipalis, the sleeping-sickness- 

 carrying fly. 



The Koko River we crossed, and then a high table- 

 land to the Sopo. Both had stony wide beds, and 

 carried down about i| feet of water in a swift current. 

 The other side of the Sopo was hilly, and thence to the 

 Biri was over well-known ground. 



In the Mongaiyat I lost one of my men. Whether 

 he deserted or was eaten by a lion is still a mystery to 



