The lowering of the temperature,
by rains or other causes, has much the same effect as the increasing mildness
of our own spring.
The earth teems with myriads of young insects;
in some parts of the country hundreds of centipedes, myriapedes, and beetles
emerge from their hiding-places, somewhat as our snails at home do;
and in the evenings the white ants swarm by thousands. A stream of them
is seen to rush out of a hole, and, after flying one or two hundred yards,
they descend; and if they light upon a piece of soil proper for
the commencement of a new colony, they bend up their tails,
unhook their wings, and, leaving them on the surface,
quickly begin their mining operations. If an attempt is made
to separate the wings from the body by drawing them away backward, they seem
as if hooked into the body, and tear away large portions of the insect;
but if turned forward, as the ant itself does, they snap off
with the greatest ease. Indeed, they seem formed only to serve the insect
in its short flight to a new habitation, and then to be thrown aside.
Nothing can exceed the eagerness with which, at the proper time,
they rush out from their birth-place. Occasionally this occurs in a house,
and then, in order to prevent every corner from being filled with them,
I have seen a fire placed over the orifice; but they hesitate not even
to pass through the fire. While swarming they appear like snow-flakes
floating about in the air, and dogs, cats, hawks, and almost every bird,
may be seen busily devouring them. The natives, too, profit by the occasion,
and actively collect them for food, they being about half an inch long,
as thick as a crow-quill, and very fat. When roasted they are said
to be good, and somewhat resemble grains of boiled rice.
An idea may be formed of this dish by what once occurred
on the banks of the Zouga. The Bayeiye chief Palani visiting us while eating,
I gave him a piece of bread and preserved apricots; and as he seemed
to relish it much, I asked him if he had any food equal to that
in his country. "Ah!" said he, "did you ever taste white ants?"
As I never had, he replied, "Well, if you had, you never could have desired
to eat any thing better." The general way of catching them
is to dig into the ant-hill, and wait till the builders come forth
to repair the damage, then brush them off quickly into a vessel,
as the ant-eater does into his mouth.
The fall of the rain makes all the cattle look fresh and clean,
and both men and women proceed cheerily to their already hoed gardens,
and sow the seed. The large animals in the country leave the spots
where they had been compelled to congregate for the sake of water,
and become much wilder. Occasionally a herd of buffaloes or antelopes
smell rain from afar, and set off in a straight line toward the place.
Sometimes they make mistakes, and are obliged to return to the water
they had left.
Very large tracts of country are denuded of old grass during the winter
by means of fire, in order to attract the game to that which there springs up
unmixed with the older crop. This new herbage has a renovating tendency,
for as long as they feed on the dry grass of the former season
they continue in good condition; but no sooner are they able to indulge
their appetites on the fresh herbage, than even the marrow in their bones
becomes dissolved, and a red, soft, uneatable mass is left behind.
After this commences the work of regaining their former plumpness.
MAY 30TH. We left Bango, and proceeded to the River Loembwe,
which flows to the N.N.E., and abounds in hippopotami.
It is about sixty yards wide, and four feet deep, but usually contains
much less water than this, for there are fishing-weirs placed right across it.
Like all the African rivers in this quarter, it has morasses on each bank,
yet the valley in which it winds, when seen from the high lands above,
is extremely beautiful. This valley is about the fourth of a mile wide,
and it was easy to fancy the similarity of many spots on it
to the goodly manors in our own country, and feel assured that there was still
ample territory left for an indefinite increase of the world's population.
The villages are widely apart and difficult of access, from the paths being
so covered with tall grass that even an ox can scarcely follow the track.
The grass cuts the feet of the men; yet we met a woman with a little child,
and a girl, wending their way home with loads of manioc.
The sight of a white man always infuses a tremor into their dark bosoms,
and in every case of the kind they appeared immensely relieved
when I had fairly passed without having sprung upon them.
In the villages the dogs run away with their tails between their legs,
as if they had seen a lion. The women peer from behind the walls
till he comes near them, and then hastily dash into the house.
When a little child, unconscious of danger, meets you in the street,
he sets up a scream at the apparition, and conveys the impression
that he is not far from going into fits. Among the Bechuanas I have been
obliged to reprove the women for making a hobgoblin of the white man,
and telling their children that they would send for him to bite them.
Having passed the Loembwe, we were in a more open country,
with every few hours a small valley, through which ran a little rill
in the middle of a bog.
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