540 
EFFECTS OF SMOKING MUTOKWANE. Chap. XXVII. 
ants at once sounded tlie call to a good supply of grass. I heard 
them incessantly nibbhng and carrying away all that night; 
and they continued all next day (Sunday) and all that night too 
with unabated energy. They had thus been thirty-six hours at 
it, and seemed as fresh as ever. In some situations, if we re¬ 
mained a day, they devoured the grass beneath my mat, and 
would have eaten that too, had we not laid down more grass. 
At some of their operations, they beat time in a curious manner. 
Hundreds of them are engaged in building a large tube, and they 
wish to beat it smooth. At a signal, they aU give three or four 
energetic beats on the plaster in unison. It produces a sound 
like the dropping of rain oif a bush when touched. These insects 
are the chief agents employed in forming a fertile soil. But for 
their labours, the tropical forests, bad as they are now with fallen 
trees, would be a thousand times worse. They would be impass¬ 
able on account of the heaps of dead vegetation lying on the 
surface, and emitting worse effluvia than the comparatively small 
unburied collections do now. Wlien one looks at the wonderful 
adaptations tlrroughout creation, and the varied operations carried 
on with such wisdom and skill, the idea of second causes looks 
clumsy. We are viewing the dhect handiworks of Him who is 
the one and only Power in the universe ; wonderful in counsel; 
in whom we all live and move and have our being. 
The Batoka of these parts are very degraded in their appear¬ 
ance, and are not likely to improve, either physically or mentally, 
while so much addicted to smoking the mutokwane {Cannahu 
sativd). They like its narcotic effects, though the violent fit of 
coughing, which follows a couple of puffs of smoke, appears dis¬ 
tressing, and causes a feeling of disgust in the spectator. This is 
not diminished on seeing the usual practice of taking a moutlfful 
of water, and squhting it out together with the smoke, then 
uttering a string of half-incoherent sentences, usually in self- 
praise. This pernicious weed is extensively used in all the tribes 
of the interior. It causes a species of frenzy, and Sebituane’s 
soldiers, on coming in sight of their enemies, sat down and smoked 
it, in order that they might make an effective onslaught. I was 
unable to prevail on Sekeletu and the young Makololo to forego 
its use, although they cannot point to an old man in the tribe 
who has been addicted to this indulgence. I beheve it was the 
