The World and Its People Part 47

As it moves through the water, a piece of wood attached by a long cord to the harpoon swims upon the surface; this serves to indicate the direction the creature is taking. By pulling upon the rope the natives drag the crocodile to the surface and soon pierce it by a second spear.

It frequently happens, however, that the harpoon is pulled out of its body, and thus the prize escapes.

In some of the rivers of Africa the natives are very bold and skillful in attacking the crocodile in the water. Their mode is to arm themselves with a short dagger, dive beneath the reptile, and plunge the weapon into its body. Often the combat becomes a very fierce one, and the only chance of escape on the part of the native is to force his dagger, or, if by any misfortune he has lost this, to thrust his thumbs into the reptile's eyes with all his strength, thus causing great pain and loss of sight.

Among the ancient Egyptians the crocodile was an object of worship, and thus held sacred. In consequence of this idolatry, it became very bold and troublesome. Had it not been for its natural enemy, the ichneumon, this reptile would have increased to an alarming extent in the Nile countries.

CHAPTER LXVII.

ANTS OF AFRICA.

Probably no insect is of more interest in Africa than the termite, or white ant. It is found in vast numbers and may well be dreaded. The amount of damage an army of termites can do is quite appalling; for, in their line of travel, they destroy everything in their pathway.

Du Chaillu devoted the greater part of his leisure hours to studying the habits of the many species of these white ants, the nests of which are very conspicuous on the prairies. He describes them as having wonderful diversity, not only in the form of their bodies and heads, but in their architectural tastes. One species builds a mushroom-shaped structure.

Their singular hives are shaped like gigantic mushrooms scattered by tens of thousands over the prairies.

Du Chaillu believed these white ants of the prairies to be of a very different species from those which live in subterranean nests, and make their appearance through the floor of one's hut, removing all substances made of cotton or wood that they find in their pathways. They seemingly have a very keen sense of smell. They are very fond of eating wood, and are often found in dead trees.

One may go to bed with no fear from these little creatures, since no sign of them has been seen, and awake in the morning to find little covered pa.s.sages overspreading the floor, chests of clothing, and the various stores, and to discover with dismay that the contents of the chests and of the store closets have been entirely destroyed by the thousands of busy ants, that, like an invading host, are engaged in working destruction with their sharp jaw-blades. Wood and cotton are the only materials they destroy; wool and silk they invariably spare.

Another species of ant which this author describes lives in the forest and is a very near neighbor of the other. He called it the tree ant from its habit of building hives or nests in trees.

Many of the nests of the termites are conical or turret-shaped, and are often twelve, sometimes twenty feet high; they are built in groups like villages. While there is a variety of termites most destructive in their line of march across a country, yet, in some ways, they are very useful; for they destroy every kind of decaying matter, whether animal or vegetable. They will, when pressed for food, eat even gra.s.s. Some writers have described the snapping of the mandibles of such a vast mult.i.tude of termites as resembling the sound of a gentle breeze among trees.

These termites have been known to attack the woodwork of houses; they can soon destroy even the stoutest timbers, gnawing them till they become mere sh.e.l.ls. Some extraordinary stories have been told of their attacking and devouring large animals. Very probably, however, they do this only when the animal is very feeble from illness or old age.

Wherever food is to be found, they come in great hosts, and it is very hard to exterminate them; for, as fast as one mult.i.tude is disposed of, other mult.i.tudes press on from the rear ranks. They gather into their nests great stores of corn. The natives of Africa are very fond of it and often help themselves from these stores.

The natives often use these insects as food, and consider them very delicate and delicious eating when roasted. Sometimes they are pounded by the natives into a kind of jam, which the boys and girls of Africa like as well as American children do raspberry or currant jam.

It is no uncommon thing for hunters out searching for game, or even wild animals looking for prey, to mount the hills made by the termites to get a view of the surrounding country; for, so hard do the plastered tops of the unique dwellings of these most curious of masons become, when dry, that they easily sustain the weight of a human being, and even of a beast of the plain.

While the devastation which an army of termites leaves behind in its march is appalling, yet an army of locusts is still more destructive; for it often leaves the country in its line of march as bare as if no vegetation had ever grown there. Africa suffers in no small degree from the inroads of this enemy, small in size, but great in numbers.

Livingstone, in his travels in South Africa, speaks of the hills erected by the termites. These gigantic mounds, as he terms them, are utilized by the natives, who choose their sides as choice spots for rearing early maize, tobacco, or anything which requires a rich soil.

In the parts through which he pa.s.sed these mounds were generally covered by ma.s.ses of wild date trees. The fruit was small, for no tree was allowed to stand long. Food was abundant and the natives did not care to spend their time preserving wild fruit trees. So, when a date palm grew too tall for its top to be reached, as soon as the fruit was ripe it was cut down, in order that there should be no occasion to climb it; for it was considered too much trouble to do so.

Speaking of the swarming from a nest of these ants, he describes them as rushing out of a hole in a perfect stream, and, after flying one or two hundred yards, descending to the ground. If they lighted upon a soil suitable for founding a colony, they immediately bent up their tails, unhooked their wings, and, leaving them on the surface of the ground, quickly began their mining operations.

These wings seem formed only to help the insect in its short flight to a new abode and are then cast aside.

Occasionally this swarming occurs in a house, and, to prevent every corner from being filled with the insects, a fire is built at the orifice of the nest. But they do not hesitate to pa.s.s through the fire.

While swarming they appear like snowflakes floating about in the air, and it is not uncommon to find dogs, cats, hawks, and almost every kind of bird busily devouring them.

The natives take advantage of the swarming season and collect the ants for food. They are then about half an inch long, about as large round as a goose quill, and very plump. When roasted, they are good eating and resemble grains of boiled rice. The general mode of catching them is to dig into the hill, and as the builders come forth to repair the damage, to sweep them quickly into some cooking utensil.

A singular animal of South Africa is the earth hog. Its food consists wholly of the white ants, whose dome-like structures are found in great numbers in the vicinity of the Orange River, and in other thinly settled localities.

This animal burrows a short distance below the surface of the ground.

During the daytime it is seldom seen; at dusk, however, it ventures forth, intent on creeping up to the ant-hills which shelter its prey. By scratching a hole on the side of one with its fore-feet the little community is disturbed; and as the ants in their confusion run about in various directions, they are easily drawn into the earth hog's mouth by its long slender tongue.

Though apparently defenseless,--for it has no tusks nor efficient teeth,--no animal is safer in its concealment, for it is very rarely seen. When pursued, it burrows a retreat for itself with astonishing speed.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA.

Although Africa may well be considered the home of the black man, yet we must not fail, in considering the people of the dark continent, to refer to the annals of history for many interesting facts about them.

From the days of the remotest antiquity, two Asiatic branches of the human family extended their area southwest into Africa. The emigrants called Hamites, peopled Egypt, Libya, and Numidia. They furnished us with the earliest annals of history; for they invented the hieroglyphics and the arts for which Egypt was celebrated. Their successors, the Semites, who followed them from Asia, spread all over the northern and eastern sections of the continent. Followers of Mohammed, they carried his faith with them in their journeying and laid the foundation of the Mohammedan religion as we find it in the sections along the Mediterranean Sea. As Arab traders they have extended their journeys into the very heart of the continent to carry on the traffic of ivory and slaves.

The black race is native to Africa. It is divided into three great branches, each of which is divided into numerous tribes and again subdivided into kingdoms.

The _negroes_, or true blacks, are native to Central Africa. They inhabit the great coasts of Guinea and Senegambia in West Africa, and also the great tract of country which extends eastward through the Soudan, the "Land of the Blacks," to the valley of the Nile. Most of the freed men of the United States are descendants of the negroes of the Guinea coast, who, having been captured as slaves, were shipped across the sea to America and sold into bondage.

The _negroid_ branch of the African race is doubtless of mixed ancestry, descended from the true negro and from the white race inhabiting North and East Africa. It is a well-marked branch, showing plainly the mixed ancestry of the people. The various tribes occupy Nubia, the high gra.s.sy plains of East Central Africa, which include the lake region and the basin of the Upper Nile, and the vast territory which contains the watersheds of the mighty Congo and Zambesi Rivers. The various tribes known as Kaffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas, and the many tribes of Bantu in the south of Africa all belong to the _negroid_ branch.

A third branch, the _negrillos_, or dwarfs, are a people of small stature. Some of the tribes are found in the thick forests that lie along the northern side of the Congo River. In South Africa we find them represented by the Bushmen, one of the lowest grades of the human family, occupying the land bordering on the Kalahari Desert. The Hottentots are somewhat larger in stature and of a higher order of intelligence. They very likely are of a mixed ancestry, having descended from a mingling of the Bushmen and some of the tribes of the _negroid_ branch in this region.

Notwithstanding that there are but three branches of the native people of Africa, yet owing to their division into numberless tribes, each bearing its own special name, almost as much difficulty is found in tracing their origin as in trying to discover the source of any of the great rivers from their various tributaries which form a network over the country.

We shall later in our reading obtain some knowledge of the Moorish pirates who infested the Mediterranean Sea and who had their headquarters at Algiers.

It is due to the French nation that since 1830 the magnificent port of Algiers has been open to all the fleets of the world, and the coast of the Mediterranean, freed from pirates, has been accessible to all the navies of the world, should they choose to occupy it.

The attention of the French is now turned toward ridding the great sea of sand which extends between Northern Africa and Central Soudan from the fierce Tuaregs that still occupy it. They are a race as wild and barbarous--yes, as lawless--as were ever the terrible pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. They may be termed the brigands of the desert.

They roam over the vast region between Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli in the north, and Lake Tchad in the south. Mounted upon racing camels, they go upon raiding expeditions and seek the oases, with which the great desert is strewn, for refuge and to replenish their stores.

Until recently these mysterious Sahara tribes have seemed determined to bar the road to their territory against all white men.

Who are the Tuaregs? From whence came they? It is believed that they are remnants of the Berber tribes of Northern Africa, who occupied the Libyan Desert. The Romans and other nations, together with the Arabs, from time to time drove them back into the great desert.

The raid and conquest of the Arabs was fierce and bitter. Some of these Berber tribes had been Christians for six centuries and had formed the flourishing African church to which St. Augustine belonged and did not readily forsake their faith to adopt that of Mohammed. In consequence their land was confiscated and their olive orchards burned. Early in the ninth century this work of persecution began, and for two hundred years these people had been crowded back into the desert.

Their homes gone, the migrating Berbers had no way of preserving the annals of the exodus of their tribes into the wilderness; for they had no written language, and in the course of time their memory became dimmed as to their history. They are called Tuaregs by the Arabs, meaning "those who have renounced."

All memory of their ancient faith has been lost. The Latin cross, which was its emblem, is found on the hilts of their swords and in the ornaments on the bridles of their racing camels, but the Tuaregs, descendants of these ancient Berbers of Christian faith, have no knowledge of its significance.

The only occupations of these people are their wars and the long expeditions across the desert. Mounted upon swift camels, they traverse its vast extent. Their faces, which are concealed by a black veil, remind one of the mailed knights of the Middle Ages. No one has ever seen the face of one of these Tuareg warriors uncovered. The Arabs term them the "Veiled Ones."

The fineness of the texture of the veil with which a Tarki, a native of one of these tribes, conceals his features is indicative of his social rank. If of the higher cla.s.s, he wears his veil night and day. The strongest proof of friendship he can give is to raise his veil and show his features while talking to any one.