d ourselves
marching down the narrow aisle of the jungle itself.

It was a dense and beautiful jungle, with very tall trees and the
deepest shade; and the impenetrable tangle to the edge of the track.
Among the trees were the broad leaves of bananas and palms, the fling
of leafy vines. Over the track these leaned, so that we rode through
splashing and mottling shade. Nothing could have seemed wilder than
this apparently impenetrable and yet we had ridden but a short distance
before we realized that we were in fact passing through cultivated land.
It was, again, only a difference in terms. Native cultivation in this
district rarely consists of clearing land and planting crops in due
order, but in leaving the forest proper as it is, and in planting
foodstuffs haphazard wherever a tiny space can be made for even three
hills of corn or a single banana. Thus they add to rather than subtract
from the typical density of the jungle. At first, we found, it took some
practice to tell a farm when we saw it.

From the track narrow little paths wound immediately out of sight.
Sometimes we saw a wisp of smoke rising above the undergrowth and
eddying in the tops of the trees. Long vine ropes swung from point to
point, hung at intervals with such matters as feathers, bones, miniature
shields, carved sticks, shells and clappers: either as magic or to keep
off the birds. From either side the track we were conscious always of
bright black eyes watching us. Sometimes we caught a glimpse of their
owners crouched in the bush, concealed behind banana leaves, motionless
and straight against a tree trunk. When they saw themselves observed
they vanished without a sound.

The upper air was musical with birds, and bright with the flutter of
their wings. Rarely did we see them long enough to catch a fair idea of
their size and shape. They flashed from shade to shade, leaving only
an impression of brilliant colour. There were some exceptions: as the
widower-bird, dressed all in black, with long trailing wing-plumes of
which he seemed very proud; and the various sorts of green pigeons and
parrots. There were many flowering shrubs and trees, and the air was
laden with perfume. Strange, too, it seemed to see tall trees with
leaves three or four feet long and half as many wide.

We were riding a mile or so ahead of the safari. At first we were
accompanied only by our gunbearers and syces. Before long, however, we
began to accumulate a following.