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Cornugaya Directory 10
Page 02
This statement only applies to the actual marching, and does not at all
mean that you had not to go through severe sufferings and endless trials
of other kinds. Unless you were careful where you were sitting, you found
yourself spiked by thorns of great length which were strewn all over the
forest hidden under the thick carpet of discarded foliage from the trees.
Not only that, but the moment you sat down your body was simply invaded
by swarms of ants of all sizes and degrees of viciousness, which
proceeded to bite you all over with considerable vigour. There were not
many mosquitoes where the forest was dense, but there were millions--in
fact, milliards--of bees, which rendered your life absolutely unbearable,
as they clung to your face, hands and clothes. Fortunately, they did not
sting, but clinging with their claws upon your skin they produced such an
irritation that you were nearly driven mad by it.
We crossed two streamlets flowing north. After that we came upon a most
troublesome patch of swampy land with high reeds in it, the leaves of
which cut our hands like razors when we forced our way through them,
struggling in mud and slush up to our knees, sometimes as high as our
waists. A streamlet flowing north formed the marsh in that low place. The
moment we had got out of the marsh the men threw themselves down and said
they could go no farther. I pointed out to them that that spot was most
unhealthy, and tried to persuade them to go some distance from that
pestilential place. But they would not listen to reason, and there they
would stay.
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