SURVIVAL ON LAND AND SEA 
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removed may be toasted on the end of a stick. The pupae or 
eggs of ants are edible but are difficult to collect in quantity. 
Winged termites, which migrate in great numbers during the 
rains, are also edible when the wings have been removed. 
There are two main kinds of shrimps, often called crawfish, 
and a host of smaller varieties averaging about an inch in length. 
They can be caught in various ways. Along the larger streams 
in the shallow places near the shore, where water is nearly 
stagnant, masses of small shrimps may be found swimming 
about and be taken with hand nets; if you don’t have one you 
can make one that will do by fashioning a hoop from a shoot or 
small branch and interlacing strips of leaves or fibers to make 
the mesh. Best results are obtained by people working in pairs 
and standing in the water. One drives the hosts of shrimps 
towards the other* who dips them out with the net. In some 
areas the natives will dam a shallow narrow stream making a 
fairly watertight barrier of branches, sticks, large leaves, mud, 
and sand. As the section downstream runs dry, the shrimps 
stranded there or hiding among and beneath rotten pieces of 
wood, branches, leaves, in the crevices between the rocks, and 
among roots or other debris are collected. Fish and crabs are 
often obtained in the same manner at the same time. The best 
yield, however, comes from the bailing dry of many pools and 
puddles still remaining in the bottom of the stream bed. With 
larger pools build a mud dam across and scoop the water with 
your hands, if you have nothing else, out of one side until you 
can catch the shrimp or fish found in it. Then scoop the water 
back from the other side and get the rest of them. Anything that 
can be picked up to serve as a scoop is used to dip out the pools, 
or small dip nets are made on the spot for the purpose. Where 
