‘We will, we will.’
‘Will ye run when the cavalry come?’
‘We will, we will.’
If our host had not been so jovial we should certainly have looked under the table for a box of dynamite. I did not note the name of this place because, as I told Mac, it would probably be one of those heathen names with forty-three hiki pikis and rapi tapis which we could neither pronounce nor write correctly. That evening I learnt that it was called Oxford. It is either at Oxford or the place next to it where there is a lusus naturæ, which for many years has attracted the attention of the medical faculty. This is a boy who has the attributes of a small bull. When a stranger arrives he comes and snuffs, then he stares and snorts and ‘moos’ like an ox. When a gate or door is shut, instead of opening it with his hands he will stand in front of it and paw the ground. If it is not opened he lowers his head and butts. It is expected that some day he will smash his skull, and this remarkable phenomenon will be lost to science.
The last and worst part of our journey was through sixteen miles of what is known in these parts as ‘the bush.’ At the entrance to it there were some pretty steep precipice-like slopes, about 1,000 feet in depth, from the edges of which our wheels often did not have more than six inches clearance.
Mac, who was on the hanging or lee-side of the coach, said he did not like it.
To describe the sixteen-mile bush I must ask you to imagine the Suez Canal lined on either bank with tall trees, and an undergrowth so thick that it formed a dense black wall. Next imagine the Suez Canal, instead of being straight, to be curved. Finally, imagine the Suez Canal to be filled with from six inches to two feet of stiff clay and water-holes. When you have done this, you will have a picture of something not very much like the Suez Canal, but very much like the sixteen-mile bush.
Some of the fern leaves were big enough to thatch a haystack. A botanist collecting specimens of these plants would require twenty-four foot screens in which to press his specimens. Many of the trees were covered with things which Mac called orchids, and which he said were worth from £5 to £20 apiece. I expect he thought I should stop the coach and begin to climb.
The trunks of some of the trees were completely buried by these parasites, while their heads were bowed down by the weight they had to carry.
If a tree was cut down, the grass, or whatever it is which grows upon it, ought to fodder a herd of oxen for several months.