They Are Very Useful
In Ridding The Country Of Dead Animal Matter, And, When They Visit
A Human Habitation, Clear It Entirely Of The Destructive White Ants
And Other Vermin.
They destroy many noxious insects and reptiles.
The severity of their attack is greatly increased by their vast numbers,
and rats, mice, lizards, and even the `Python natalensis',
when in a state of surfeit from recent feeding, fall victims
to their fierce onslaught.
These ants never make hills like the white ant.
Their nests are but a short distance beneath the soil,
which has the soft appearance of the abodes of ants in England.
Occasionally they construct galleries over their path
to the cells of the white ant, in order to secure themselves
from the heat of the sun during their marauding expeditions.
JANUARY 15TH, 1855. We descended in one hour from the heights
of Tala Mungongo. I counted the number of paces made on the slope downward,
and found them to be sixteen hundred, which may give a perpendicular height
of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. Water boiled at 206 Degrees
at Tala Mungongo above, and at 208 Deg. at the bottom of the declivity,
the air being at 72 Deg. in the shade in the former case,
and 94 Deg. in the latter. The temperature generally throughout the day
was from 94 Deg. to 97 Deg. in the coolest shade we could find.
The rivulets which cut up the valley of Cassange were now dry,
but the Lui and Luare contained abundance of rather brackish water.
The banks are lined with palm, wild date-trees, and many guavas,
the fruit of which was now becoming ripe. A tree much like the mango abounds,
but it does not yield fruit. In these rivers a kind of edible muscle
is plentiful, the shells of which exist in all the alluvial beds
of the ancient rivers as far as the Kuruman. The brackish nature of the water
probably enables it to exist here. On the open grassy lawns
great numbers of a species of lark are seen. They are black,
with yellow shoulders. Another black bird, with a long tail
(`Centropus Senegalensis'), floats awkwardly, with its tail
in a perpendicular position, over the long grass. It always chooses
the highest points, and is caught on them with bird-lime,
the long black tail-feathers being highly esteemed by the natives for plumes.
We saw here also the "Lehututu" (`Tragopan Leadbeaterii'),
a large bird strongly resembling a turkey; it is black on the ground,
but when it flies the outer half of the wings are white. It kills serpents,
striking them dexterously behind the head. It derives its native name
from the noise it makes, and it is found as far as Kolobeng.
Another species like it is called the Abyssinian hornbill.
Before we reached Cassange we were overtaken by the commandant,
Senhor Carvalho, who was returning, with a detachment of fifty men
and a field-piece, from an unsuccessful search after some rebels.
The rebels had fled, and all he could do was to burn their huts.
He kindly invited me to take up my residence with him; but, not wishing
to pass by the gentleman (Captain Neves) who had so kindly received me
on my first arrival in the Portuguese possessions, I declined.
Senhor Rego had been superseded in his command, because the Governor Amaral,
who had come into office since my departure from Loanda,
had determined that the law which requires the office of commandant
to be exclusively occupied by military officers of the line
should once more come into operation.
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