328 A Sportswoman in India 



throbbing, passionate, tropical life ; the silence was 

 unbroken except for the screech of the parrots, or 

 the crashing of a troop of monkeys among the branches. 

 Soft, plumy groves of palms, tall cocoanuts, areca-nuts, 

 sagos, every variety of fruit-bearing tree, luxuriated ; 

 the pepper-vine clung to the huge timber trees among 

 ropes of rattan, and almost every bough was wreathed 

 in creepers of purple and blue, yellow and white. 

 Thick fronds of fern, masses of strange foliage, formed 

 a dense undergrowth, while the whole scene weltered 

 in a haze of glowing, bizarre colour, shed from 

 gorgeous orchids above and around. 



Marvellous butterflies and strange insects danced 

 among this triumph of vegetation. If with it all, these 

 glorious tropical forests had not been endowed with 

 the climate of a forcing-house, what an earthly paradise 

 would they not be ! As it is, their very beauty is 

 violent, and the analogy follows that their drawbacks 

 are exaggerated too. 



The great gouts of thunderous, tropical rain strike 

 the broad, receptive surface of the huge, fleshy leaves 

 with almost a shriek^ which can be heard some distance 

 off The insects and reptiles are awe-inspiring ; the 

 natives talk of an eight-foot, four-foot, and six-foot 

 snake, nor do they refer to the length of the beast 

 but to the distance any unfortunate person bitten 

 by that particular snake can walk before he drops 

 down dead. 



Tavernier tells us that in old days these dense 

 forests were inhabited by innumerable wild beasts and 



