A Captive Lioness at Mopti
This animal was about a year old and had been brought up from days of cubhood by its owner. The beast had an uncertain temper, so could scarcely be called an affectionate pet. She had quite recently sprung on a sheep which had unwarily wandered within range of her chain, and made a substantial meal off the carcass!
Before I left Mopti the Commissioner returned. He had been to Djenné to buy wood for building the school. It is a strange fact that at Mopti there is practically no wood. Almost the only wood suitable for building purposes in this part of the French Soudan, and indeed for many hundred miles down-stream below Timbuctu, is the wood of the dum palm. At Djenné this tree grows profusely.
The great enemy of the carpenter in West Africa is the white ant. This tiny creature has a most voracious appetite for wood, but certain kinds, amongst others the dum palm and the cocoanut palm, are impervious to his attacks. White ants always work in large numbers. They can be seen travelling along in armies of several thousand, marching in single file or two deep, and following a little groove or channel which they have excavated for themselves. Their presence in wood is first detected—if you are lucky—by observing a narrow streak of earth running along the object they are attacking. This is in reality a tunnel, which covers them and affords them shelter while they work at the wood underneath. They are most persistent little creatures, seldom abandoning the object they are devouring until they have eaten right through it.
If you are not fortunate enough to discover their presence by the appearance of the earthen tunnel, your first intimation will probably be given by the sudden collapse of the particular article upon which they have concentrated their efforts. If this happens to be one of the uprights which support the roof of your house, even if you have the good luck to escape without personal injury, it is trying to suddenly find the building in ruins. Hence the necessity of using a wood which can resist their onslaughts. Tarring wood will to a certain extent keep them off, but it is by no mean reliable. The only way to preserve wooden boxes and similar articles, which generally rest on the ground, is to put saucers of water underneath, for the ants will not then be able to climb on to the wooden surface.
Ants of several species are common in West Africa. Another kind, which is in many ways more irritating even than the white ant, is the driver ant. This animal also travels in big armies like the one already referred to. The “driver” is only found in bush-country. I never came across it in the drier, sandy soil of the Western Soudan, where vegetation is not so luxurious as in the countries nearer the sea-coast. He is brown, and larger than the white ant. His particular hobby is to bite. He is certainly an adept in the art of biting, as his unlucky victim soon discovers to his cost. The “driver” is often seen on a bush path in the daytime, when the best way of avoiding a close acquaintanceship is to leap over the track he is following, and then vigorously shake your feet as soon as you have got well out of his range, for despite all precautions some of the followers in the army will be fairly certain to have succeeded in attaching themselves to your legs as you passed.
But when the “driver” elects to come at night, as he frequently does, you probably have no warning of his approach until you feel his bite. Once they have settled on a victim they swarm mercilessly over him in thousands, and, if left to work their evil will unmolested, they will not leave the object of their attacks until they have devoured it. I recollect on one occasion having a very miserable night owing to “drivers.” I had gone to bed rather tired after a long day’s march, when I suddenly woke up with unpleasant stinging pains in my legs. I quickly realized that I had been attacked by “drivers.” Leaping out of bed and striking a light I discovered my blankets were covered with a black swarm of these horrible creatures, several of which had settled themselves on my limbs with some tenacity. On summoning my servant we tracked the long line for about a hundred yards down the clearing in which I was camped to some dank vegetation out of which they were emerging. The only chance of turning them aside and getting a little sleep that night was to light a fire across their tracks.
To add to the general discomfort it was pouring with rain, and a fire was not an easy thing to kindle; however, at the cost of most of the kerosene of which I was possessed, we managed to light a fire and head them off. In such cases it is usually the best policy to shift your camp and leave the ants the masters of the field, for they are extremely hard to turn aside, and I have seen them put out a fire by sheer force of numbers. In some parts of the country, where the natives are pagans and indulge in human sacrifice, a common method of killing their victim is to tie the individual up, stripped of clothing, in such a position that movement is impossible, leaving the “driver” ants to consume the body. The tortures of such a slow, agonizing death must be terrible. A friend of mine once had two puppies devoured in this way. His fox-terrier bitch had a litter of three puppies one evening, and the following morning only one remained. The ants had invaded the dog’s basket during the night, and the mother had only been able to save a single member of her family from her pertinacious enemies.