TSETSE. 



211 



greatly obstructs civilization by the ravages 

 which it commits upon books and manuscripts. 



Pew, if any, domestic animals are aborigines 

 of the Island, and of those imported none thrive 

 save Bozal negroes and asses. Cattle brought to 

 Zanzibar die after the first fortnight, unless pro- 

 tected from sun, rain, and dew, and fed with dry 

 fodder. The fatality resulting from the use of 

 green meat leads here, as in the Concan and at 

 Cape Coast Castle, to the impression that the 

 grass is poisonous. At some places in the main- 

 land, Pangani for instance, cattle will not live — 

 this is certainly the effect of tsetse. At Cape 

 Coast Castle horses always die ; at Accra they 

 survive, if not taken awav from the sea-board : 

 in 18G3, during a short march through the 

 country, I found an abundance of the tsetse, or 

 ' spear-fly.' The specimens sent by me to Png- 

 land were lost with other collections in the ill- 

 fated c Cleopatra.' As has lately been shown, the 

 tsaltsal of Bruce is mentioned in Deut. xxviii. 

 42, in Isa. xviii. 5, and in Job xli. 7. The word 

 is translated fish-spear, harpoon, locust ; but it 

 is not proved that tsaltsal and tsetse are the same 

 fly, and the similarity of the two words may be 

 the merest coincidence. The Banyans of Zanzi- 

 bar, who, having no local deity like their more 



