Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...and fro. As I approached the three objects rose simultaneously and flew away, circling round me several times. I was now able to distinguish the form of a bird, but I was astonished to observe that as it flew it was accompanied by two dark bodies, one on either side, which maintained a distance of about seven or eight inches from its body and looked in the dim light like large moths. On a subsequent occasion I saw this strange bird earlier in the evening when the light was stronger, and the mystery was then cleared up. The feathers arising from the carpus of each wing were of enormous length, each feather being fully twice as long as the bird's body, and presented the remarkable peculiarity of having barbs or webs only at the extreme ends, the shafts of the feathers consisting of long and slender filaments. As the bird sat on the ground with its wings closed these feathers stood up almost vertically, the ends inclining slightly outwards, and as the filamentous shafts were, of course, invisible in the twilight, the appearance presented was that of a tuft of feathers suspended in the air on each side, several inches above the bird's body. Insect life in this part of the country was not very abundant, but a few large ground-beetles were to be seen on most days scampering across the path, as well as various forms of Scarabaei. These latter were not at all conspicuous at the time of our arrival (the Harmattan season), but during the last month of our stay at Bontuku they became very numerous both as to individual specimens and varieties. They made their appearance quite suddenly after a heavy tornado which occurred one afternoon about the middle of March and was accompanied by torrents of rain, and on that occasion I first made their acquaintance....