“Nom d’un chien! what is there in my neck that itches so much?” And tearing away the rag which protected his neck from the rays of the sun he found it soaked in blood.
“I thought it was perspiration,” he cried, “trickling down my neck. Am I wounded at last?”
His companions with several Dayaks approached, but the miscreants simply burst out into hearty laughter. Before the Walloon could get any answer to his appeal for help he passed his hand down his neck and felt some slimy, smooth objects from which he suddenly withdrew his fingers.
“What is this?” he asked nervously.
“Halamantek,” was the phlegmatic reply of one of the Dayaks.
“Halamantek! what do they mean?”
“Don’t make yourself ridiculous,” Johannes grinned. “Halamantek are only forest-leeches and they will rid you of some superfluous Walloon blood.” [[264]]
A sigh of relief escaped the wounded man. On examination it proved that during their stampede through a thick wood not only the Walloon, but all of the company had been attacked by these little reptiles. He, however, from some unaccountable cause had received a double share of their favors.
“The forest-leech,” Johannes explained, “is a reptile strongly resembling a thick gray thread about the length of a finger. It inhabits the lower branches of trees and from there attacks its prey, either man or beast. It creeps in some crevice of the skin or dress and greedily begins its meal. Its bite is not painful at first, resembling rather a sensation of itching, but as soon as it has sucked itself full the irritation becomes intense.”
“That is exactly what I felt,” the Walloon murmured.