Chap. L. 
BATTLE WITH ANTS. 
399 
gathering what man wants entirely for himself ; for 
they lay in such a considerable store of corn, that I 
have very often observed the poor natives, not only in 
these regions, but even along the shores of the Niger, 
digging out their holes, in order to possess themselves 
of their supplies. 
Besides these large black ants, the small red ant, 
called in Bornu " kitta-kitta," and in Bagirmi "kfs- 
sase," is found in great numbers, and becomes often 
very troublesome by its very smallness, as it gets so 
easily into all sorts of dresses without being observed. 
I was once greatly amused in witnessing a battle be- 
tween this small red ant and the white ant, called 
"kanam " in B6rnu, and here "nyo " (termes fatalis), 
when the latter were very soon vanquished by the 
warriors of the former species, who, notwithstanding 
their smaller size, were carrying them off with great 
speed and alacrity to their holes ; for the white ant is 
powerless as soon as it gets out of its subterranean 
passages, which impart to them strength, as the 
earth did to Antasus. 
The rains, which at first had set in with consider- 
able violence, had afterwards almost ceased, so that 
the herbage on the open uncultivated grounds in the 
town became quite withered, and many of the people, 
who upon the first appearance of rain had been 
induced to trust their seeds to the soil, were sadly 
disappointed ; and I have already had occasion to re- 
late that the natives, including their chief, attributed 
this state of the weather to my malignant influence. 
