340 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XL VIII. 
the whole well-being of the country had been anni- 
hilated, and not only their wealth in silver and 
cattle had disappeared, but the ruin and decay 
extended even, as he considered, in his melancholy 
frame of mind, to nature, — whole districts which had 
been formerly under cultivation and covered with 
villages being now changed to a wilderness, and 
regions which had formerly been well supplied with 
water suffering now the extreme of drought. Worms, 
he told me, were devouring their crops and vegetables, 
dooming them to starvation. 
All this was true as far as regarded the present 
state of the country ; for though I cannot say whether 
its physical condition was ever much more favourable, 
still as to its government and political importance 
there certainly was a time when Bagfrmi enjoyed 
greater prosperity. It might seem indeed as if the 
country was visited by Divine chastisement, as a 
punishment for the offences of their ancestors and 
the ungodly life of their former ruler. In no country 
in the whole extent of Negroland which I have 
travelled over have I seen such vast numbers of 
destructive worms, and such a predominance of ants, 
as in Bagfrmi. There is especially a large black worm 
called " hallu-wendi," as long as the largest grub, but 
much bigger, which, swarming in millions, consumes 
an immense proportion of the produce of the natives. 
Bii-Bakr showed me also another far smaller, but not 
less voracious insect, which they call " kunjungjiidu," 
a beetle about half an inch long, and of a yellow colour ; 
