Every clan has some kind of animal they do not eat. Quengueza assured me that when a boy he saw a woman who had given birth to a crocodile. I scarcely touched the buffalo meat; the otter I did not like. When I came to the antelope my appetite had gone, to my great sorrow, for I am very fond of this dish. I finished up my dinner with a slice of pine-apple. I doubt very much if a more curious dinner could be given anywhere. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER XV. THE TERRIBLE BASHIKOUAY.—MARCH OF AN ANT ARMY.—THEY BUILD BRIDGES.—THEY ENTER HOUSES.—THEIR HABITS. One day I was plodding along in the vast forest in search of game, and was suddenly startled by a strange noise falling upon my ears. I heard the footsteps of wild beasts running away. I thought even that I saw the glimpse of a gorilla; I certainly heard distinctly the footsteps of an elephant soon after. At last I heard at a great distance a mighty crash as if elephants were running at great speed through the forest, breaking every thing before them. What can all this mean? I asked myself; and I knew not why, but a vague feeling of awe began to creep over me. I knew that something strange must have happened or was coming. Were we going to have an earthquake? It could not be a tornado, for we were in the beginning of the dry season. [Sidenote: _THE BASHIKOUAY ANT._] Finally the insects which had begun to fly at the beginning of this tumult now grew thicker and thicker, when suddenly I was annoyed by fearful bites, and in less time than I have taken to write I was covered by a kind of ants called by the Bakalais _Bashikouay_. I leaped and fled with the utmost haste in the same direction the insects and beasts had taken. An army of bashikouay ants was advancing, and devouring every living thing in its way. I was almost crazy, for they were in my clothes and on my body, and often when they gave a bite a little piece of flesh would come out. When I thought I was out of reach I immediately took off my clothes. They had, in their fury, literally buried themselves in these, and their pincers were deep into them; and like the fierce bull-dog of our own country, when once they bite they never let go their hold; and many and many a time their bodies were severed from their head as I pulled them out; their pincers clung still to my flesh. I defy any living man to stand quiet before an army of bashikouay; he would certainly be killed and devoured. This was incontestably the largest army of bashikouay I have ever seen, and how it swept over the forest, driving every thing before it! These little ants are more powerful when combined in such an army than any living thing in the forest. All other animate things are put to flight before their march. It is only in the interior that one can have an idea of their number.