148 THE MIGHTY HUSH OF NATURE. 



Central Africa) they are also quickly deserted by the 

 birds. * 



It may be that this is due to the fact that scattered 

 scraps of food thrown out by the natives, or growing^ 

 crops in their fields and gardens attract these birds, 

 or that the presence of man drives away their enemies ; 

 but at any rate the fact of their following the human 

 habitant is well known, and we shall have more to- 

 say upon the same subject in our subsequent chapter 

 on "Wildfowl." 



Thus therefore it comes that in the heart of great 

 forests, where man has no permanent place of abode, 

 these leafy solitudes are in general in still weather 

 wrapped in a silence almost equalling that of eternal 

 sleep. 



This mighty hush of Nature, before it is broken in 

 upon by the busy sounds of human labour, has been 

 very beautifully described by Alexander Pope in the 

 opening lines of his "Essay on Silence," in these words 

 in one of the most striking pieces written during 

 his boyish days 



" Silence ! coeval with Eternity 

 Thou wast, ere Nature's self began to be. 

 'Twas one vast nothing all, and all slept fast in thee. " t 



When this condition of absolute stillness is present, 

 it is a bad chance for the hunter, especially in the great 

 tropical forests, where many of the fallen leaves are 

 of immensely strong thick fibre, so that when dry it 

 is almost like walking upon tin plates. 



The great leaves of the teak as well as those of 

 nearly all the Ficus tribe and numerous other trees, 



* Expedition to the Zambesi, by David Livingstone, publ. 1 868, p. 65. 

 -j- Essay on Silence, by Alexander Pope (Tempo 1708), 1st verse. 



