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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Numerous pythons, from fifteen to 

 twenty feet in length (generally disin- 

 clined to attack human beings, however), 

 are coiled on the branches of the trees, 

 or hang by their tails like a pendent 

 branch, swaying to and fro in the wind. 

 Their checkered patterns of brown and 

 white are rendered very beautiful some- 

 times by the bloom of iridescence which 

 imparts rainbow colors into the scales 

 when the skin is new. 



The natives think nothing of laying 

 hold of the wild python, who may per- 

 haps have coiled himself up in some hole, 

 and however much the snake hisses and 

 protests, it seldom seems to bite. Yet 

 these snakes could crush a man between 

 their folds, and do crush and devour 

 numbers of sheep and goats. They seem, 

 however, very loath to attack mankind 

 and will allow extraordinary liberties to 

 he taken with them. The vividly-painted 

 puff-adders are as common as the py- 

 thons, and although their bite is abso- 

 lutely deadly, they, too, seem too slug- 

 gish to attack unless by some blunder 

 you tread on them and wait to see the 

 consequences. 



Therefore the snakes are far less an 

 annoyance or an impediment to the ex- 

 ploration of these forests than the biting 

 ants. These creatures are a veritable 

 plague in moist, hot regions where there 

 is abundant vegetation. I suppose they 

 are sometimes at home and resident in 

 their underground labyrinths, but they 

 are a restless folk, forever seemingly 

 on the line of march. They traverse 

 forest paths in all directions along cause- 

 ways of their own, worn in the soil by 

 the passage of their thousands. 



When you come across one of these 

 armies of ants in motion, on either side 

 of the main stream, which is perhaps 

 only half an inch broad, there may be 

 a couple of feet of biting warriors in a 

 swarming mass on either side of the 

 rapidly marching army of workers carry- 

 ing pupae. Sentinels are out far and 

 wide in all directions, and if you pause 

 anywhere within a few feet of this 

 marching body of ants you will very soon 

 feel the consequences in a series of pain- 



i 



ful nips as though from red-hot pincers. 

 These warrior ants know no fear. They 

 attack any creature which comes near 

 their line of march, burying their power- 

 ful mandibles in the flesh, and will then 

 let the head be torn from the body 

 sooner than give way. 



THE BANANA GROVES. 



A description of Uganda would not be 

 complete without a reference to the 

 banana groves, which, from an agricul- 

 tural point of view, form the distinguish- 

 ing feature of this country. The culti- 

 vated banana is possibly not native to 

 Africa in its origin. I believe botanists 

 consider that it first diverged from wild 

 forms of Musa in Eastern Asia, and, like 

 all the other food products cultivated by 

 the negro, traveled to tropical Africa 

 from India at some prehistoric period. I, 

 too, held this opinion once, but I cannot 

 indorse it so heartily now, on reflection. 

 I believe there is no record of the banana 

 having been known to the ancient Egypt- 

 ians. 



It would, in any case, be difficult to 

 make a native of today believe that his 

 beloved food substance, which provides 

 him with a mass of nourishing vegetable 

 pulp, with a dessert fruit, with sweet 

 beer and heady spirit, with soap, plates, 

 dishes, napkins, and materials for foot- 

 bridges, was not always indigeneous to 

 the land he dwells in and of which it has 

 become the distinguishing feature. 



the; goriIvLa and other strange 



ANIMATS 



In western Uganda beyond the Sem- 

 liki River, the traveler can walk with a 

 reasonable degree of comfort between 

 the mighty trunks of the colossal trees, 

 whose foliage at a height of 200 feet 

 above the ground almost completely 

 shuts out the sky. This is said to be 

 the region more favored by the okapi 

 than the districts of dense undergrowth. 

 In the depths of these mysterious for- 

 ests the natives assert that there are 

 other strange animals besides the 

 okapi. A creature which they described 

 as like a pig, only about six feet 



