HUMAN TREE-DWELLERS 115 



tops, where, umbrella-like, they open into great 

 knobs of foliage, and form a huge canopy so thick 

 that not a ray of sunlight may break through. Be- 

 neath is the most luxuriant and wettest vegetation 

 to be found on earth. Palms, bamboos, ferns, and 

 plants of rankest and endless variety, hide the 

 ground and rise to form yet another forest of 

 smaller though thicker growth ; while rattans and 

 vines and creeping things stretch from tree to tree, 

 to make a continuous series of giant festoons. 



And the malarial smell everywhere. 



It required a heavy rain to come steadily through 

 that close canopy; but it arrived. Nor was the 

 rain needed to complete our drenching ; except for 

 the footing there was little appreciable difference 

 wading the chin-deep streams, or plowing through 

 the dripping jungle under that leaky canopy. In- 

 deed, the stream wading was much to be preferred, 

 for only at such times we escaped the leeches. 



Leeches and lizards and centipedes and number- 

 less other varieties of crawling unpleasantness 

 were, in fact, the only living things I had seen thus 

 far. And of leeches there were literally myriads. 

 They fastened upon you actually from crown to 

 foot, as you worked your way through the ferns 

 and grasses, which reach high above your head. 

 Notwithstanding carefully adjusted puttees and a 

 closely tied handkerchief, it was impossible to keep 



