INCREASE OF TSETSE OWING TO ZULU EAIDS. 185 



here, one time very numerous, at another none to be seen. 

 The game also is generally very scarce here. The country 

 consists of heavy sand and forest, being a portion of the 

 sandy pool plateau. The Bushmen have told me that the 

 fly breeds in the buffalo droppings, and it seems as if there 

 was some truth in it, because where the buffaloes have 

 been driven away in certain tracts, the fly has almost 

 disappeared. It is not found on the north bank of either 

 the Zambesi or the Chobe rivers, close to the water where 

 there are flats. ' Wankie's ' people, the Mashapatanp, 

 have informed me that before ' Mosilikatze ' drove them 

 across the Zambesi, the hilly tract of country between 

 the ' Gwai ' and Daka rivers had no Tsetse, was thickly 

 inhabited by three tribes, namely Mashapatans, Matongas, 

 and Batokas, and that they had plenty of cattle, but 

 since the country became uninhabited and overrun with 

 game, it has become one of the great strongholds of 

 Tsetse, extending from the Zambesi river for at least 

 sixty or seventy miles in a southerly direction — one eftect 

 produced by the Zulus' love of rapine and slaughter. 



" It bites throughout the day, except when it rains, 

 and during part of the night if wai-m ; in fact, I consider 

 it dangerous to travel at night with cattle or horses, until 

 it begins to grow cold towards the middle of the night, 

 as I have been bitten often until past 11 p.m. It is very 

 cunning, always darting, if watched, behind one's back, 

 and if much persecuted with a fly-duster, darts to the 

 grass or bushes, but soon returns to the attack. It will 

 follow, for miles, fresh meat, or natives, but soon retui'ns 

 within its bounds. Tsetse will not stay long in a camp, 

 after fires are lighted, although numerous all round. The 

 Kaffirs have said to me, when much troubled by the fly 

 in camp, ' Make a fire and they will go away.' I found 

 the experiment to succeed. Its buzz is peculiar and not 

 easily forgotten" (pp. 51-52). 



"All domestic animals perish if bitten, sooner or later, 

 with the exception of the goat ; the donkey seems to 

 resist it longest. Dogs are taken into the fly district by 

 the Bushmen when pups, and are allowed to suckle the 

 mother, and at the same time given as much fly to eat as 

 can be captured for them. The mother in this case dies 

 and the pups live and grow up, but are the most miserable 



