Often one may travel weeks or months
without this infliction.
I was always interested and impressed to observe how indifferent
the wild animals seem to be to these insects. Zebra, rhinoceros
and giraffe seem to be especially good hosts. The loathsome
creatures fasten themselves in clusters wherever they can grip
their fangs. Thus in a tick country a zebra's ears, the lids and
corners of his eyes, his nostrils and lips, the soft skin between
his legs and body, and between his hind legs, and under his tail
are always crusted with ticks as thick as they can cling. One
would think the drain on vitality would be enormous, but the
animals are always plump and in condition. The same state of
affairs obtains with the other two beasts named. The hartebeeste
also carries ticks but not nearly in the same abundance; while
such creatures as the waterbuck, impalla, gazelles and the
smaller bucks seem either to be absolutely free from the pests,
or to have a very few. Whether this is because such animals take
the trouble to rid themselves, or because they are more immune
from attack it would be difficult to say. I have found ticks
clinging to the hair of lions, but never fastened to the flesh.
It is probable that they had been brushed off from the grass in
passing. Perhaps ticks do not like lions, waterbuck, Tommies, et
al., or perhaps only big coarse-grained common brutes like zebra
and rhinos will stand them at all.
XX. DIVERS ADVENTURES ALONG THE TANA
Late one afternoon I shot a wart-hog in the tall grass. The beast
was an unusually fine specimen, so I instructed Fundi and the
porters to take the head, and myself started for camp with Memba
Sasa. I had gone not over a hundred yards when I was recalled by
wild and agonized appeals of "Bwana! bwana!" The long-legged
Fundi was repeatedly leaping straight up in the air to an
astonishing height above the long grass, curling his legs up
under him at each jump, and yelling like a steam-engine.
Returning promptly, I found that the wart-hog had come to life at
the first prick of the knife. He was engaged in charging back and
forth in an earnest effort to tusk Fundi, and the latter was
jumping high in an equally earnest effort to keep out of the way.
Fortunately he proved agile enough to do so until I planted
another bullet in the aggressor.
These wart-hogs are most comical brutes from whatever angle one
views them. They have a patriarchal, self-satisfied, suburban
manner of complete importance. The old gentleman bosses his harem
outrageously, and each and every member of the tribe walks about
with short steps and a stuffy parvenu small-town
self-sufficiency. One is quite certain that it is only by
accident that they have long tusks and live in Africa, instead of
rubber-plants and self-made business and a pug-dog within
commuters' distance of New York.
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