28 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
entrapped; and month after month there was no 
sign of change to imago. Yet each pit held a 
fat, enthusiastic inmate, ready at a touch to turn 
steam-shovel, battering-ram, bayonet, and gour- 
mand, Among the first thousand-and-one mys- 
teries of Kartabo I give a place to the source of 
nourishment of the sub-bungalow ant-lions. 
Walking one day back of the house, I observed 
a number of small holes, with a little shining head 
just visible in each, which vanished at my ap- 
proach. Looking closer, I was surprised to find 
a colony of tropical doodle-bugs, Straightway I 
chose a grass-stem and squatting, began fishing 
as I had fished many years ago in the southern 
states. Soon a nibble and then an angry pull, 
and I jerked out the irate little chap. He had the 
same naked bumpy body and the fierce head, and 
when two or three were put together, they fought 
blindly and with the ferocity of bulldogs. 
To write of pets is as bad taste as to write in 
diary form, and, besides, I had made up my mind 
to have no pets on this expedition. They were a 
great deal of trouble and a source of distraction 
from work while they were alive; and one’s heart 
was wrung and one’s concentration disturbed at 
