260 BIRDS OF AFRICA. 



maggot. There were seen also great numbers of centipedes with 

 light reddish bodies and blue legs, and great myriapedes are 

 seen crawling everywhere. Even in the deepest and quietest 

 parts of the forest there is the distinct hum of insect joy. The 

 tiny honey guides were at hand volunteering their services, but 

 there were no artificial hives as in Londa, or long lines of 

 honey bearers. The wax had not become an article of value as 

 on the west coast. The little toilers store their treasure in the 

 cavities of trees. 



The feathered tribes seemed determined to vindicate their 

 characters, and contradict the assertion that " birds of the tropics 

 are wanting in the power of song; " but to Livingstone, though 

 they sang with power, they seemed " singing in a foreign 

 tongue." " One," he says, " brought the chaffinch to my mind, 

 another the robin ; two have notes not unlike those of the 

 thrush, while some resemble the lark." The best songs, how- 

 ever, of them all were marked by certain "strange, abrupt 

 notes " unlike anything he had heard before. One utters delib- 

 erately, " Peek, pak, pok ; " another has a single note like a 

 stroke on a violin string. Then there is the loud cry of fran- 

 colins, the " pumpuru, pumpuru " of the turtle-doves, and the 

 screaming notes of the mokwa. The birds of Africa, like its 

 people, are unknown and therefore despised. When they have 

 been sung by the poets people will praise their songs, and the 

 poets will sing of them when they have heard the songs. Like 

 our birds, these choristers of the unknown land love the early 

 morning and the evening with its balmy breath, or they are 

 filled with joy when, on a sultry day, a sudden shower has re- 

 freshed all nature, and great, cool drops hang like pearls on 

 every bough or leaf, glistening in the rays of the sun, which 

 glance along the clouds with broken power. It is a pleasing 

 thought that God has provided the darkest wildernesses of earth 

 with melodies in praise of his goodness, and it may be that we 

 should consider the presence of God's choir as a prophecy of his 

 coming. It may be that the voice of song which wraps the 

 world like praise is to be the canopy of God's dominion. It 

 may be that the birds of Africa, songful and free, hint of the 

 time when all her sable sons may shout in the wonderful eman- 

 cipation which shall attend the reign of Christ Jesus the Lord. 



