

Troublesome Plants. \ 1 1 



grass is burned. About April and May the grass begins 

 to seed, and some kinds of grass have seeds as long 

 and sharp as needles ; these cling to flannel shirts, 

 socks, and other rough clothing, proving a very great 

 nuisance. 



At times grass seeds will be driven into the flesh, and 

 as some of them seem to have barbed points, they are 

 difficult to extract. Then there is the buffalo bean (chitaizi 

 or chitedza), which I have mentioned before as being a 

 pod covered with hairy spikes, containing some irritant 

 poison and causing a severe itching, followed by a red rash, 

 which, however, disappears in a day or less, if the blood is 

 in good order. 



There are also many different kinds of thorns and 

 stinging nettles, and a painful object to rub against in 

 thick grass is a fine creeper about the size of a leather 

 bootlace, which is covered with sharp spikes. This creeper 

 is difficult to detect, as it is green in the rains and turns 

 yellow with th<* grass in the dry season, and when shooting 

 in bare legs, as I usually do, I have had the skin badly torn 

 by this vegetable string. It is very strong, so there is no 

 use trying to break it, and one has to retreat a pace and 

 then step over it. 



Ticks are often numerous, and in some parts of Africa 

 leeches are bad, but I never saw them so numerous in 

 Africa as I did in parts of Eastern India. 



While working at Ekaruni Tea Estate, in Sylhet, both 

 the coolies and myself used to get covered with wire 

 leeches, and it was useless trying to pull them all off, as 

 they generally carry away a piece of skin, and the place 

 is sure to fester, and often form a bad ulcer. I can 

 remember occasions when I got home and applied some 

 salt to them and collected from fifty to one hundred on the 

 mud floor. Then a sprinkle of salt would make them 

 vomit up the blood, and a pool of gore would collect over 

 a foot in circumference. This would not have been so bad 

 if it had been a very occasional event, but when it was 

 repeated day after day, it made one feel like a sucked 



