at first the nuisance is excessive, one becomes
accustomed to it in a remarkably short space of time. The adaptability
of the human being is nowhere better exemplified. After a time one gets
so that at night he can remove a marauding tick and cast it forth into
the darkness without even waking up. Fortunately ticks are local
in distribution. 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 ea