In the shadow
overhead flew and chattered crowds of green paroquets and glossy
crows, while here and there we could see a Bird of Paradise drooping
its smart tail-feathers amid the foliage. A little further, and deep
in the forest the ear caught the busy tap-tap of the woodpecker, the
snap of the toucan's beak, or far away the deep trumpeting of the
elephant. Once we startled a leopard that gazed a moment at us with
flaming eyes, and then was gone with a wild bound into the thicket.
From tree to tree trailed hosts of gorgeous creepers, blossoming in
orange, white and crimson, or wreathing round some hapless monarch of
the forest and strangling it with their rank growth. Still we
climbed.
"The bridle-track now skirted a torrent, now wound dizzily round
the edge of a stupendous cliff, and again plunged into obscurity.
Here and there the ruins of some ancient and abandoned shrine
confronted us, its graceful columns entwined and matted with
vegetation; or, again, where the forest broke off and allowed our
eyes to sweep over the far prospect, the guides would point to the
place where stood, hardly to be descried, the relics of some dead
city, desolate and shrined in desolation.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167