134 MONKEYS RESPECTED. Chap. V. 



The reddisli ant, in the west called drivers, crossed our 

 path daily, in solid columns an inch wide, and never did 

 the pugnacity of either man or beast exceed theirs. It is 

 a sufficient cause of war if you only approach them, even 

 by accident. Some turn out of the ranks and stand with 

 open mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite 

 with savage ferocity. When hunting, we lighted among 

 them too often; while we were intent on the game, and 

 without a thought of ants, they quietly covered us from 

 head to foot, then all began to bite at the same instant ; 

 seizing a piece of the skin with their powerful pincers, 

 they twisted themselves round with it, as if determined to 

 tear it out. Their bites are so terribly sharp that the 

 bravest must run, and then strip to pick off those that 

 still cling with their hooked jaws, as with steel forceps. 

 This kind abounds in damp places, and is usually met 

 with on the banks of streams. We have not heard of their 

 actually killing any animal except the Python, and that 

 only when gorged and quite lethargic, but they soon clear 

 away any dead animal matter; this appears to be their 

 principal food, and their use in the economy of nature is 

 clearly in the scavenger line. 



We started from the Sinjere on the 12th of June, our 

 men carrying with them bundles of hippopotamus meat 

 for sale, and for future use. We rested for breakfast 

 opposite the Kakolole dyke, which confines the channel, 

 west of the Manyerere mountain. A rogue monkey, the 

 largest by far that we ever saw, and very fat and tame, 

 walked off leisurely from a garden as we approached. 

 The monkey is a sacred animal in this region, and is never 

 molested or killed, because the people believe devoutly 

 that the souls of their ancestors now occupy these de- 

 graded forms, and anticipate that they themselves must, 

 sooner or later, be transformed in like manner ; a future 

 as cheerless for the black as the spirit-rapper's heaven is 



