540 EFFECTS OF SMOKING MUTOKWANE. Chap. XXVH. 



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 re- 

 mained 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 labours, the tropical forests, bad as they are now with fallen 

 trees, would be a thousand times worse. They would be impass- 

 able 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 handiworks 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. Tins pernicious weed is extensively used in all the tribes 

 of the interior. It causes a species of frenzy, 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 cannot point to an old man in the tribe 

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





