In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
hair. We had always kept the feet of our iron 
bedstead surrounded by some sticky substance, 
and in this way had generally escaped them 
when they entered our room: but that night, a 
part of our mosquito curtain had fallen to the 
floor and they had run up on that. We looked 
carefully to our mosquito curtains after that, and 
whenever I heard the noises that attend their ar¬ 
rival, 1 merely lighted a candle. In a few mo¬ 
ments the walls were streaked with lines of 
march as they hurried to get out of the light. I 
made no attempt to destroy them until I found 
them trying to get their “ eyah ” or “mother” un¬ 
der our house. They showed amazing strength 
and perseverance in guarding and transporting 
this singular object. It would have been taken 
for a large cigar only that it was covered all over 
with small, thin scales. It is needless to say they 
did not succeed in getting their “ eyah ” under 
our house. I kept this natural curiosity for some¬ 
time, but failed to bring it home with me. 
In the large white ant of Africa, we had a more 
intolerable pest than in the driver ant. The 
Sierra Leone people call them “ bugbugs.” They 
devour anything except metal, stone and the 
hardest wood, and they do this in such an in¬ 
sidious manner that the mischief is not even sus- 
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