24 DESCRIPTIVE 



goliath heron and a numerous assembly of black 

 ibises. Here a small peninsula of low, green 

 grass juts out some yards into the water, and 

 among the giant duckweed and floating pollen 

 of the encompassing grasses by which the surface 

 is covered, one may see the tracks of the swimming 

 ducks and dabchicks, whilst long-limbed stints 

 and spidery-toed waterfowl rush in and out of 

 the gleaming grass stems, where the sunlight 

 seldom penetrates — ^those cool, grey, insect-popul- 

 ated depths where every day a million lives are 

 born and die. 



The rattle of the wind-swept reed stems 

 sounds pleasant to our ears — a foretaste of the 

 cool afternoon breeze, which in the tropics, with 

 praiseworthy regularity, comes up with the wester- 

 ing sunlight to wipe away unprofitable recol- 

 lections of the hot, thirsty forenoon tramp. 

 All through the morning hours forest and fen 

 have lain slumbering in a gradually increasing 

 heat. As noon approaches a deep silence seems 

 to brood over the face of the entire country. 

 The beasts have fed their way into their mid- 

 day shelters ; scarcely a bird's note breaks the 

 intense stillness of the forest. The damp air 

 of the marsh, heavy with the odour of water-lilies 

 and other fen blooms, reminds one of the oppressive 

 atmosphere of an English hot-house. These are 

 the hours of the insects' daily revels. Butterflies 

 of gorgeous hues ; large, troublesome, buzzing 

 flies and droning beetles, fill the air with a low, 

 tremulous, drowsy hum ; glittering dragon-flies, 

 each wing a separate jewel of rare brilliancy, sun 



