322 1HE OX " SINBAD." 



On the one bank of the Chihune they appeared to a person 

 standing opposite them to wind up from left to right, on 

 the other bank from right to left. I imagined this was 

 owing to the sun being at one season of the year on their 

 north, and at another on their south, But on the Leeam- 

 bye, I observed creepers winding up on opposite sides of 

 the same reed, and making a figure like the lacings of a 

 sandal. 



In passing through these narrow paths, I had an 

 opportunity of observing the peculiarities of my ox 

 " Sinbad." He had a softer back than the others, but a 

 much more intractable temper. His horns were bent 

 downwards and hung loosely, so he could do no harm 

 with them ; but as we wended our way slowly along the 

 narrow path, he would suddenly dart aside. A string tied 

 to a stick put through the cartilage of the nose serves 

 instead of a bridle : if you jerk this back, it makes him 

 run faster on ; if you pull it to one side, he allows the 

 nose and head to go, but keeps the opposite eye directed 

 to the forbidden spot, and goes in spite of you. The only 

 way he can be brought to a stand is by a stroke with a 

 wand across the nose. When Sinbad ran in below a 

 climber stretched over the path, so low that I could not 

 stoop under it, I was dragged off and came down on the 

 crown of my head ; and he never allowed an opportunity 

 of the kind to pass without trying to inflict a kick, as if 

 I neither had nor deserved his love. 



A remarkable peculiarity in the forests of this country 

 is the absence of thorns ; there are but two exceptions- 

 one a tree bearing a species of mix vomica, and a small 

 shrub very like the plant of the sarsaparilla, bearing in 

 addition to its hooked thorns bunches of yellow berries. 

 The thornlessness of the vegetation is especially noticeable 

 to those who have been in the south, where there is so 

 great a variety of thorn-bearing plants and trees. We 

 have thorns of every size and shape ; thorns straight, 

 thin and long, short and thick, or hooked, and so strong 

 as to be able to cut even leather like a knife. Seed- 

 vessels are scattered everywhere by these appendages. 

 One lies flat as a shilling, with two thorns in its centre,, 

 ready to run into the foot of any animal that treads upon 

 it, and stick there for days together. Another (the Uncaria- 

 pvocumbens, or grapple-plant) has so many hooked thorns 

 as to cling most tenaciously to any animal to which it 



