It Is A Sufficient Cause Of War If You Only
Approach Them, Even By Accident.
Some turn out of the ranks and
stand with open mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite with
savage ferocity.
When hunting, we lighted among them too often;
while we were intent on the game, and without a thought of ants, they
quietly covered us from head to foot, then all began to bite at the
same instant; seizing a piece of the skin with their powerful
pincers, they twisted themselves round with it, as if determined to
tear it out. Their bites are so terribly sharp that the bravest must
run, and then strip to pick off those that still cling with their
hooked jaws, as with steel forceps. This kind abounds in damp
places, and is usually met with on the banks of streams. We have not
heard of their actually killing any animal except the Python, and
that only when gorged and quite lethargic, but they soon clear away
any dead animal matter; this appears to be their principal food, and
their use in the economy of nature is clearly in the scavenger line.
We started from the Sinjere on the 12th of June, our men carrying
with them bundles of hippopotamus meat for sale, and for future use.
We rested for breakfast opposite the Kakolole dyke, which confines
the channel, west of the Manyerere mountain. A rogue monkey, the
largest by far that we ever saw, and very fat and tame, walked off
leisurely from a garden as we approached.
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