18 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



The largest is probably the " matmalelo " of S. Africa ; 

 it is eaten by the Wagogo and other tribes. A smaller 

 kind is of dark colour, and with long legs, which en- 

 able it to hop great distances. A third is of a dirty 

 yellow, with brownish speckles. There is also a little 

 green tree-frog, which adheres to the broad and almost 

 perpendicular leaves of the thicker grasses. The leech is 

 found in the lakes and rivers of the interior, as well as 

 in Zanzibar and on both coasts of Africa ; according to 

 the Arabs they are of two kinds, large and small. The 

 people neither take precautions against them when 

 drinking at the streams, as the Somal do, nor are they 

 aware of any officinal use for the animals ; moreover, 

 it is impossible to persuade a Msawahili to collect them: 

 they are of P'hepo or fiendish nature, and never fail to 

 haunt and harm their captor. J ongo, or huge millepedes, 

 some attaining a length of half a foot, with shiny black 

 bodies and red feet, are found in the fields and forests, 

 especially during the rains : covered with epizoa, these 

 animals present a disgusting appearance, and they seem, 

 to judge from their spoils, to die off during the hot 

 weather. At certain seasons there is a great variety of 

 the papilionaceous family in the vicinity of waters 

 where libellulse or dragon-flies also abound. The 

 country is visited at irregular times by flights of locusts, 

 here called nzige. In spring the plants are covered in 

 parts with the p'hanzi, a large pink and green variety, 

 and the destructive species depicted and described by 

 Salt: they rise from the earth like a glowing rose- 

 coloured cloud, and die off about the beginning of the 

 rains. The black leather-like variety, called by the 

 Arabs " Satan's ass," is not uncommon : it is eaten by 

 the Africans, as are many other edibles upon which 

 strangers look with disgust. The Arabs describe a fly 



