216 INSECTS 



blossoms of the high forest trees, seldom descend 

 to low levels. 



Moths are extremely numerous and very trouble- 

 some. I never hear them mentioned without my 

 mind instantly conjuring up a really trying, fluffy, 

 white variety, which, should you be under canvas, 

 or taking your dinner on the shade-deck of a river 

 steamer, makes a point of coming and plunging 

 eagerly into your soup or your wine, and leaving 

 on the surface, after it has been fished out, an 

 unattractive, white, dusty scum from its thickly 

 covered wings. The caterpillars of this moth, for 

 those who care for such creatures, are very gor- 

 geously coloured. I am not sure whether this is 

 one of the species, of which there are several, 

 covered with tiny spines, making them very dis- 

 agreeable to handle, and which have the same 

 properties as those of the fiendish Mucuna bean 

 described in a previous chapter, and set up an 

 irritation which is hard to bear. They are, I 

 consider, for this and other reasons, best left 

 severely alone. 



The Ant is such a curse as to deserve an entire 

 paragraph to himself. First and foremost comes 

 the bhnd white Termite, commonly known as the 

 "White Ant," whose curiously shaped hillocks, 

 often reaching a height of fifteen feet or more, are 

 seen all over this part of Africa. When once this 

 pest enters your house, you may consider that 

 lamentation and woe are upon you. Their activity 

 is extraordinary, and nothing is safe from them. 

 Clothing, wooden furniture, saddlery, leather trunks, 

 anything not of metal becomes literally scored and 



