THE VICIOUS SEROO T 169 damage they do is so great in the native plantations of dhurra.

After all, civilization and invention have achieved something ; the bullet is quicker in action than the primitive spear.

It is almost incredible that as late as 1831 a geographer should calmly describe the hippopotamus as being well known to have cloven hoofs, the tail and mane of a horse, and in size to be equal to a large ox. Yet this is the description which the Rev. Dr. Russell endorses, having taken his inspiration from Herodotus rather than from fact !

The seroot flies had not been so numerous for some reason. No one who has not undergone their attentions can properly appreciate their effect on the nervous system. A penetrating buzz, intensely intent, springs into a rushing existence of a million miles an hour. Sight does not easily follow it ; the sound ceases for a fraction of a second, unlocated ; then a red-hot needle is plunged into parts of one's anatomy which were thought amplyguarded. Clothes appear to be as protective against X rays as against the powers of this vicious busybody. So the next time the warning note is heard, a dash for the "meatsafe " is made, fiom the inside of which disappointed insects can be seen glueing their heads against the mesh of the wires. They have one redeeming feature, inasmuch as it has not yet been demonstrated that, as do the tsetse, they harbour microbes inimical to man.

But to be regarded as meat by anything is ob-