140 UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS [chap, v 



ing out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a deadly hold. 

 Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like 

 the tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked 

 like claws, that were hooked into every crevice, and 

 round every projection. In the stage beyond this the 

 palm had been killed, and its dead carcass appeared 

 between the big, winding vine-trunks ; and later the 

 palm had disappeared, and the vines had united into a 

 great fig-tree. Water stood in black pools at the foot 

 of the murdered trees, and of the trees that had mur- 

 dered them. There was something sinister and evil in 

 the dark stiUness of the grove ; it seemed as if sentient 

 beings had writhed themselves round, and were strangling 

 other sentient beings. 



We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of 

 tall palms, the ouaoua9a palm — wawasa palm, as it 

 should be spelled in Enghsh. The trunks rose tall and 

 strong and slender, and the fronds were branches twenty 

 or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green 

 blades starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. 

 Round the ponds stood stately burity palms, rising like 

 huge columns, with great branches that looked like 

 fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated from the end of 

 the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant 

 hues of a flock of parti- coloured macaws. Green parrots 

 flew shrieking overhead. 



Now and then we were bitten and stung by the 

 venomous fire-ants, and ticks crawled upon us. Once 

 we were assailed by more serious foes, in the shape of a 

 nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but about 

 the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing 

 through dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where 

 the down timber, holes, tangled creepers, and thorns 

 made the going difficult. The leading men were not 



