18 THE BLACK ANT. Chap. L 



A native smith taught me to weld iron ; and having acquired 

 some further information in this art as well as in carpentering 

 and gardening from Mr. Moffat, I was becoming handy at 

 most mechanical employments in addition to medicine and 

 preaching. My wife could make candles, soap, and clothes ; 

 and thus we had nearly attained to the indispensable accom- 

 plishments of a missionary family in Central Africa, — the 

 husband to be a jack-of- all-trades without doors, and the wife 

 a maid-of-all-work within. — - 



In our second year again scarce any rain fell. The third 

 was marked by the same extraordinary drought, and during 

 these two years the whole downfall did not amount to ten 

 inches. The Kolobeng ran dry, and so many fish died that 

 the hyaenas from the country round collected to the feast, and 

 were unable to clear away the putrid mass. A large old 

 alligator was left high and dry in the mud among the victims. 

 The fourth year was equally unpropitious, the rain being 

 insufficient to bring the grain to maturity. Needles lying out 

 of doors for months did not rust ; and a mixture of sulphuric 

 acid and water, used in a galvanic battery, parted with all its 

 moisture to the air, instead of imbibing more from the atmos- 

 phere as would have happened in England. The leaves of 

 the trees drooped, and were soft and shrivelled, though not 

 dead. Those of the mimosae were closed at midday, the same 

 as at night. I put the bulb of a thermometer three inches 

 under the soil in the sun at midday, and found that the 

 temperature was from 132° to 134°. When certain kinds of 

 beetles were placed on the surface, they ran about for a few 

 seconds and expired. But this broiling heat only augmented 

 the never-tiring activity of the long-legged black ants. 

 Where do they get their moisture ? Our house was built on 

 a hard ferruginous conglomerate, in order to be out of the 

 way of the white ant. Their black brethren got in despite 

 the precaution ; and not only were they able to moisten soil 

 to the consistency of mortar for the formation of galleries, 

 which they do by night, that they may be screened in the day 

 from the observation of birds as they are passing and repass- 

 ing towards any vegetable matter they may wish to devour, 

 but their inner chambers were surprisingly humid, though 

 dew there was none, and, our c T welling being placed on a 



