“Is it found only in the south of Africa?”
“No, Dick, it extends more or less over the whole of the plateau-lands of Africa, and is almost as great a scourge in the highlands of Egypt as it is here.”
“I wonder,” Dick said thoughtfully, “why the tzetze was created; most insects are useful as scavengers, or to furnish food for birds, but I cannot see the use of a fly which is so terribly destructive as this.”
“I can’t tell you, my boy,” Mr Harvey said. “That everything, even the tzetze has a good purpose, you may be sure, even though it is hidden from us. Possibly, for example, it may be discovered some day that the tzetze is an invaluable medicine for some disease to which man is subject, just as blistering powder is obtained from the crest-body of the cantharides beetle. However, we must be content to take it on trust. We must leave our descendants something to discover, you know, Dick; for if we go on inventing and discovering as we are doing, it is clear that they must look out for fresh channels for research.”
Chapter Thirteen.
A Brush with the Natives.
One day Jumbo touched Dick’s arm, as he was riding along with the caravan, and, pointing to a clump of trees at some little distance, said,—
“Giraffe.”