At times the brushwood was very dense, and we had to cut our way, but where the forest was closely matted above, forming a thick canopy which excluded the light, nothing, of course, could grow beneath. At points where the light penetrated, the undergrowth was immediately thick again. The path, such as it was, was stony and hard. As we trudged along in the wet, we made the acquaintance of a new discomfort. This manifested itself in the presence of a leech, a little creature about ¾–inch long, with a slender body, very much smaller than the European variety, but inflicting the same sort of three-cornered bite. The native carriers offer the easiest victims, for the leeches fasten upon their bare heels in great numbers, and they had constantly to stop and brush them off with little switches which they carried in their hands. Sometimes, when the leeches had bitten very deep, the carriers had to lay down their loads and pull them off with their fingers. They would endure them until they became too bad, say, when a dozen or so had adhered to each foot. At this time we did not suffer much, but later on, in the journey from Faula to Mafulu, they got over the tops of our boots and socks and attacked our ankles. The bite was not actually painful, and the presence of our enemy was not revealed until we realised that our feet were wet with blood. The chief haunts of the leech are wet stones and moss and low herbage. Another discomfort which we experienced at this point of our journey was the abominable attack of the scrub-itch, a nasty little parasite that the wayfarer brushes from the low herbage as he moves along. This hateful microscopic creature, which is of a bright red colour, gets under the skin and causes terrible irritation. The affection spreads, and if one is so unwise as to scratch the place, there is no hope of relief for at least three weeks. The only satisfactory remedy is to bathe the part in warm salt and water. Scrub-itch, leeches, and mosquitoes at times render life in the forest anything but blissful, yet Nature, according to her law, offers her compensations, even in the primeval forest. About the elevation that we were traversing there grows a particular kind of palm, peculiarly grateful to the native when he is hungry—a not infrequent occurrence—and at such moments of stress they discard their loads, search out this palm and cut it down. At the top, just below the crown of the palm, the last shoot, about six feet long, remains green. It is opened lengthways, and is peeled until the inside layers are reached. These layers are straw-coloured, like asparagus, and to the taste are sweet, slightly dashed with acid. Europeans, as well as natives, can eat great quantities of this wholesome and enjoyable food with impunity. It is excellent also for quenching thirst, for which it is often most convenient, as it grows in waterless regions.