ANTS 179 



resemblance to the country west of Redjaf on the White 

 Nile, the home of the giant eland ; only here there was 

 no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of 

 the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the 

 herds of straw-coloured hartebeests, or the ghostly 

 shimmer of the sun glinting on the coats of roan and 

 eland as they vanished silently in the grey sea of 

 withered scrub. 



One feature in common with the African landscape 

 was the abundance of ant-hills, some as high as a man. 

 They were red in the clay country, grey where it was 

 sandy ; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while their 

 raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some 

 of the camping-places we had to be on our watch against 

 the swarms of leaf-carrying ants. These are so called in 

 the books — the Brazilians call them " carregadores," or 

 porters — because they are always carrying bits of leaves 

 and blades of grass to their underground homes. They 

 are inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut 

 into pieces and carry off" any garment they can get at ; 

 and we had to guard our shoes and clothes from them, 

 iust as we had often had to guard all our belongings 

 against the termites. These ants did not bite us ; but 

 we encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter 

 long, which were very vicious, and their bite was not 

 only painful but quite poisonous. Praying-mantes were 

 common, and one evening at supper one had a comical 

 encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of 

 Colonel Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been 

 christened " the joUy-cum-pup," from a character in one 

 of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose are now 

 remembered only by elderly people, and by them only 

 if they are natives of the United States. Cartucho was 

 lying with his head on the ox-hide that served as table. 



