In Parts Of The Forest
Still More Dense Than This, It Assumes The Form Of A Climber Only,
And At
Once avails itself of the assistance of a tall neighbor
by winding vigorously round it, without attempting to form a
Lower head.
It does not succeed so well as parasites proper, but where forced
to contend for space it may be mistaken for one which is invariably a climber.
The paths here were very narrow and very much encumbered
with gigantic creepers, often as thick as a man's leg. There must be
some reason why they prefer, in some districts, to go up trees
in the common form of the thread of a screw rather than in any other.
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 Leeambye 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 downward
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 `nux 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.
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