; and if
certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface, they ran about
a few seconds and expired. But this broiling heat only augmented the
activity of the long-legged black ants: they never tire; their organs of
motion seem endowed with the same power as is ascribed by physiologists
to the muscles of the human heart, by which that part of the frame never
becomes fatigued, and which may be imparted to all our bodily organs in
that higher sphere to which we fondly hope to rise. Where do these
ants get their moisture? Our house was built on a hard ferruginous
conglomerate, in order to be out of the way of the white ant, but they
came in despite the precaution; and not only were they, in this sultry
weather, able individually to moisten soil to the consistency of mortar
for the formation of galleries, which, in their way of working, is done
by night (so that they are screened from the observation of birds by day
in passing and repassing toward any vegetable matter they may wish to
devour), but, when their inner chambers were laid open, these were also
surprisingly humid. Yet there was no dew, and, the house being placed on
a rock, they could have no subterranean passage to the bed of the river,
which ran about three hundred yards below the hill. Can it be that they
have the power of combining the oxygen and hydrogen of their vegetable
food by vital force so as to form water?*

* When we come to Angola, I shall describe an insect there
which distills several pints of water every night.

Rain, however, would not fall. The Bakwains believed that I had bound
Sechele with some magic spell, and I received deputations, in the
evenings, of the old counselors, entreating me to allow him to make only
a few showers: "The corn will die if you refuse, and we shall become
scattered. Only let him make rain this once, and we shall all, men,
women, and children, come to the school, and sing and pray as long as
you please." It was in vain to protest that I wished Sechele to act just
according to his own ideas of what was right, as he found the law laid
down in the Bible, and it was distressing to appear hard-hearted to
them. The clouds often collected promisingly over us, and rolling
thunder seemed to portend refreshing showers, but next morning the
sun would rise in a clear, cloudless sky; indeed, even these lowering
appearances were less frequent by far than days of sunshine are in
London.

The natives, finding it irksome t