uncover
the pits with his trunk, that the others may see the openings and tread
on firm ground. Female elephants are generally the victims: more timid
by nature than the males, and very motherly in their anxiety for their
calves, they carry their trunks up, trying every breeze for fancied
danger, which often in reality lies at their feet. The tusker, fearing
less, keeps his trunk down, and, warned in time by that exquisitely
sensitive organ, takes heed to his ways.

Our camp on the Sinjere stood under a wide-spreading wild fig-tree. From
the numbers of this family, of large size, dotted over the country, the
fig or banyan species would seem to have been held sacred in Africa from
the remotest times. The soil teemed with white ants, whose clay tunnels,
formed to screen them from the eyes of birds, thread over the ground, up
the trunks of trees, and along the branches, from which the little
architects clear away all rotten or dead wood. Very often the exact
shape of branches is left in tunnels on the ground and not a bit of the
wood inside. The first night we passed here these destructive insects
ate through our grass-beds, and attacked our blankets, and certain large
red-headed ones even bit our flesh.

On some days not a single white ant is to be seen abroad; and on others,
and during certain hours, they appear out of doors in myriads, and work
with extraordinary zeal and energy in carrying bits of dried grass down
into their nests. During these busy reaping-fits the lizards and birds
have a good time of it, and enjoy a rich feast at the expense of
thousands of hapless workmen; and when they swarm they are caught in
countless numbers by the natives, and their roasted bodies are spoken of
in an unctuous manner as resembling grains of soft rice fried in
delicious fresh oil.

A strong marauding party of large black ants attacked a nest of white
ones near the camp: as the contest took place beneath the surface, we
could not see the order of the battle; but it soon became apparent that
the blacks had gained the day, and sacked the white town, for they
returned in triumph, bearing off the eggs, and choice bits of the bodies
of the vanquished. A gift, analogous to that of language, has not been
withheld from ants: if part of their building is destroyed, an official
is seen coming out to examine the damage; and, after a careful survey of
the ruins, he chirrups a few clear and distinct notes, and a crowd of
workers b