Page 72 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

are armed with spikes of various length, but all of
about equal sharpness. Some are so formidable
that the thickest skinned beasts avoid contact with
them, and no human apparel has been devised, short
of armour, that will resist their powers of penetration
-and destruction. Under the creepers lie fallen trees,
and the ground is covered with ferns, rank grasses,
and what is generally termed undergrowth, so thick
that the soil is often entirely hidden. It may be
added as a minor but unpleasant detail that this
tangle of vegetation harbours every species of crawl-
ing, jumping, and flying unpleasantness ; myriads of
leeches that work their way through stockings and
garments of any but the closest texture ; centipedes,
and that
scorpions, wasps, stinging flies, caterpillars
thrust their hairs into the skin and leave them there
to cause intolerable irritation, snakes poisonous and
otherwise, ants with the most murderous proclivities,
and last, but not least, mosquitoes that, when they
find a human being, make the most of their oppor-
tunity. I have not exhausted the catalogue of pests,
.but only given a sample of what any traveller will
meet in a day's journey through a Malay jungle.
There is a wasp called "the reminder," a thorn
" "
called Kite's talons," and an ant known as the fire
ant." The names are as apt as they are suggestive.
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