DESCMPTIVE 25 



themselves on the grasses and reeds, and hosts 

 of other tropical insects resplendent and dingy, 

 Uvely and torpid, feel in every fibre of their 

 dehcate bodies the viTifying exhilaration of 

 the warm, grateful sunlight. This strange still- 

 ness continues unbroken aU through the later 

 morning hours, and it is usually not until some 

 time after midday that the first gentle waving 

 of the flopping spear-grass headis heralds the 

 welcome approach of the afternoon breeze. 

 Thenceforward the heat beconies less and less 

 oppressive, and, as the afternoon wanes, the 

 sensation of heat-induced hstlessness leaves one's 

 perspiration- soaked Umbs. and the march is 

 resumed with renewed activity. 



So we leave the marsh-belts and enter the 

 forest, golden lances of afternoon sunsiiine pierc- 

 ing the leafy depths with more and more diffi- 

 culty as the huge, Diana- wreathed monsters, 

 joining overhead, oppose an almost imf>enetrable 

 mass of interlaced foUage, which produces at tirres 

 a momentary gloom. In the shadow of the timber 

 trees, albeit bushes and low jungle may often 

 require some effort to force a way through., the 

 tall grasses of the plains are almost entirely 

 absent ; the only growth of the kind being a low 

 sparse variety which does not wholly cover the 

 dark clayey soil. Spiteful thorn bushes and 

 spiky trailers require constant watchfulness, ever 

 ready as they are to tear your skin and rend 

 your garments. 



Now comes a " dambo,'' an open plain in 

 the midst of the forest, covered with lush green 



