A PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES 
365 
now became more open, and was sparsely covered with small 
trees and brushwood. Although the evening was cool, a fore¬ 
taste of the awakening mosquitoes we had experience of a few 
nights previously induced me to pitch the net, under which I 
made my bed. Hammar and Steele laughed at the idea of 
mosquitoes, as it was too cool for them to come that night; with 
a word of warning to them not to attempt to enter my net in 
the night in case the mosquitoes appeared, as they were too 
lazy to pitch their own nets, I turned over and went to sleep 
lulled by the sound of a lion roaring in the distance. 
Near midnight I was awakened by a terrible commotion; the 
oxen were lowing restlessly, the servants were hurriedly 
building large fires amidst shouts to each other to hasten up, 
while Hammar and Steele were dancing about in what looked 
like Highland costume, each one with one end of a mosquito net 
in his hands that had the other end fixed to the tail of the 
cart. They were trying to pitch the nets, furiously slapping the 
while at their bare legs on which myriads of mosquitoes were 
regaling themselves. Their distress would have excited pity 
from any one, but for the ludicrous appearance they cut, hopping 
about in the dim firelight. The mosquitoes were on us with a 
vengeance. During the night it had suddenly grown warm with 
the fall of the breeze, and the mosquitoes, attracted by the light 
of our fires, came straight from the Zouga swamps in count¬ 
less numbers to the camp, with a humming roar that sounded 
like the beat of surf from a distant ocean. It was perfectly 
terrible, and the servants endeavoured by lighting large fires, on 
which they threw green branches, to increase the volumes of 
smoke, hoping to secure a little immunity from their attacks 
by lying between the fires. The oxen, in a perfect frenzy 
from the stings, tore at the yokes to which they were tethered, 
and would have inevitably got loose or played havoc with the 
cart, had we not ordered the servants to remove them and tie 
them with double reins to some trees standing close by, where 
they kept up a grievous complaining, lowing all night, stamping 
in the earth, and pawing the loose sand over their bodies in 
