TSETSE FIEST ENCOUNTERED OX LIMPOPO. 141 



ears or legs ; they drooped and died oae by one. It was 

 in vain that I erected sheds and lighted fires ; nothing 

 would protect them from the flies." 



30. 1868. James Chapman, 



"Travels in the Interior of South Africa" (London : 

 Bell and Daldy ; Edward Stanford) : Vol. I., pp. 174- 

 177, 180; Vol. II., pp. 214, 225, 249-250. 



MaJcololo remedy for calves stiffering from Tsetse bite. — ■ 

 " Their [the Makololo's] cattle are carefully kept in the 

 plains, or in parts known to be perfectly free of fly. The 

 only remedy they use, they say, is to administer the fly 

 in milk to a fly-bitten calf, but they do not seem to be 

 very sanguine about the cure " (Vol. I., p. 174). 



" Now a word with regard to that insignificant-looking 

 insect, the Tsetse, or poison-fly. This great barrier to 

 African travelling was first met by the Boers and other 

 travellers on the Limpopo ; and though most people on 

 their first encounters felt doubts regarding its repute of 

 the sting being fatal to horses and cattle, too painful 

 experience of its ravages has left no doubt on the 

 subject" (Vol. I., pp. 174-175). 



" The Tsetse is, in extreme length, half an inch, or 

 very little more, and has very much the appearance of a 

 young bee just escaped from its cell, or a bee half-drowned 

 in honey, the wings being always closed when stationaiy. 

 ... It is extremely quick of sight and keen of scent ; its 

 flight is rapid and straight. 



" The bite of the Tsetse is something like that of the 

 mosquito, but the pain is not so lasting. It assails 

 different animals in their most defenceless parts : a man 

 behind the back between the shoulders, and an ox on the 

 back or under the belly ; a horse in the same places, and 

 inside the nostrils ; and a dog on the forehead, etc. With 

 the proboscis they penetrate a pilot cloth coat and whole 

 suit of under-clothes. The bite of this insect is fatal to 

 cattle, horses, sheep, and dogs ; but there is a peculiar 

 breed of the latter known as MaJcoha dogs, which are 

 exempt from the effects of its poison, the breed having 

 from time immemorial been reared in the " fly " country, 

 and escaped a cow milk diet, as the natives say. It has 

 no ill-effects whatever on game or upon men, except that 



