down their sides. They were troubled also, once or
twice, by cockchafers and locusts, which annoyed them,
not indeed by biting, but by flying blindly against their
faces, and often-narrowly missed hitting them in the
eyes. Once particularly they were so bad that Henri
in his wrath opened his lips to pronounce a malediction
on the whole race, when a cockchafer flew straight into
his mouth, and, to use his own forcible expression,
"nearly knocked him off de hoss." But these were
minor evils, and scarcely cost the hunters a thought.