EFFECTS OF SMOKING MUTOKWANE. 579 



ants at once sounded the call to a good supply of grass. I heard 

 them incessantly nibbling and carrying away all that night ; and 

 they continued all next day (Sunday), and all that night too, with 

 unabated energy. They had thus been thirty-six hours at it, and 

 seemed as fresh as ever. In some situations, if we remained a 

 day, they devoured the grass beneath my mat, and would have 

 eaten that too had we not laid down more grass. At some of 

 their operations they beat time in a curious manner. Hundreds 

 of them are engaged in building a large tube, and they wish to 

 beat it smooth. At a signal, they all give three or four energetic 

 beats on the plaster in unison. It produces a sound like the 

 dropping of rain off a bush when touched. These insects are the 

 chief agents employed in forming a fertile soil. But for their 

 labors, the tropical forests, bad as they are now with fallen trees, 

 would be a thousand times worse. They would be impassable 

 on account of the heaps of dead vegetation lying on the surface, 

 and emitting worse effluvia than the comparatively small unburied 

 collections do now. When one looks at the wonderful adaptations 

 throughout creation, and the varied operations carried on with such 

 wisdom and skill, the idea of second causes looks clumsy. We 

 are viewing the direct handiwork of Him who is the one and only 

 Power in the universe ; wonderful in counsel ; in whom we all live, 

 and move, and have our being. 



The Batoka of these parts are very degraded in their appear- 

 ance, and are not likely to improve, either physically or mentally, 

 while so much addicted to smoking the mutokwane {Cannabis 

 sativa). They like its narcotic effects, though the violent fit of 

 coughing which follows a couple of puffs of smoke appears dis- 

 tressing, and causes a feeling of disgust in the spectator. This is 

 not diminished on seeing the usual practice of taking a mouthful 

 of water, and squirting it out together with the smoke, then 

 uttering a string of half-incoherent sentences, usually in self- 

 praise. This pernicious weed is extensively used in all the tribes 

 of the interior. It causes a species of phrensy, and Sebituane's 

 soldiers, on coming in sight of their enemies, sat down and smoked 

 it, in order that they might make an effective onslaught. I was 

 unable to prevail on Sekeletu and the young Makololo to forego 

 its use, although they can not point to an old man in the tribe 

 who has been addicted to this indulgence. I believe it was the 



