these pieces to the doors of their abodes, and after
some hours' toil leave off work, and many of the bits of grass may
be seen collected around the orifice. They continue out of sight for
perhaps a month, but they are never idle. On one occasion, a good bundle
of grass was laid down for my bed on a spot which was quite smooth and
destitute of plants. The ants at once sounded the call to a good supply
of grass. I heard them incessantly nibbling and carrying away all that
night; and they continued all next day (Sunday), and all that night too,
with unabated energy. They had thus been thirty-six hours at it, and
seemed as fresh as ever. In some situations, if we remained a day, they
devoured the grass beneath my mat, and would have eaten that too had we
not laid down more grass. At some of their operations they beat time in
a curious manner. Hundreds of them are engaged in building a large tube,
and they wish to beat it smooth. At a signal, they all give three or
four energetic beats on the plaster in unison. It produces a sound like
the dropping of rain off a bush when touched. These insects are the
chief agents employed in forming a fertile soil. But for their labors,
the tropical forests, bad as they are now with fallen trees, would be a
thousand times worse. They would be impassable on account of the heaps
of dead vegetation lying on the surface, and emitting worse effluvia
than the comparatively small unburied collections do now. When one
looks at the wonderful adaptations throughout creation, and the varied
operations carried on with such wisdom and skill, the idea of second
causes looks clumsy. We are viewing the direct handiwork of Him who is
the one and only Power in the universe; wonderful in counsel; in whom we
all live, and move, and have our being.

The Batoka of these parts are very degraded in their appearance, and
are not likely to improve, either physically or mentally, while so much
addicted to smoking the mutokwane ('Cannabis sativa'). They like its
narcotic effects, though the violent fit of coughing which follows a
couple of puffs of smoke appears distressing, and causes a feeling of
disgust in the spectator. This is not diminished on seeing the usual
practice of taking a mouthful of water, and squirting it out together
with the smoke, then uttering a string of half-incoherent sentences,
usually in self-praise. This pernicious weed is extensively used in
all the tribes of the interior. It causes a spe