56 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



frantically about in front, behind, and all around him, shouting, 

 rattling their spears against their shields, firing off guns, 

 pistols, &c., &c. After the final ceremony, which I did not 

 see, at her father's hut, the bride was taken to her husband's 

 home enveloped in a sack carried like a bale in the arms of one 

 of her husband's friends, who was every now and then relieved 

 by another. This procession also is accompanied by musicians, 

 men with guns, &c., and attended by a great deal of shouting 

 and dancing and jumping about. 



But we had other visitors besides our Egyptian friends 

 visitors which we could not get rid of, do what we would ; we 

 turned them out ignominiously I don't know how many times ; 

 we kicked them, stamped upon them, poured water on them, 

 threw ashes on them, hot and cold, took them up bodily on 

 a spade and threw them out of the door ; we made ourselves as 

 disagreeable to them as we possibly could, but no, nothing would 

 prevent their return ; so eventually they ended by turning us 

 out. These were white ants, who, having found out that the 

 generally empty room was once more occupied, arrived in 

 millions. Before attacking our property they built for them- 

 selves a house of little masses of clay, brought up by legions of 

 workers from below the floor ; they then ran up in an incredibly 

 short time, another, and then another, connecting all by covered 

 passages, steadily pushing on their outworks towards any object 

 on or near the floor, capable of being devoured or destroyed 

 anything, in fact, but metal. The conical houses all had an 

 opening at the top leading down to the base, an air-hole, the 

 interior of which felt quite hot to the finger. As all our 

 offensive and defensive tactics failed, and our enemies steadily 

 and rapidly increased the area of their operations, the room soon 

 became too small for us all ; we had to retire before them, and 

 were only triumphant so far that we saved our baggage from 

 destruction, and deprived the ants of their expected feast. 



