The sad forest ringed it round with a green wall, feathered down to the ugly mud, on which, partly perhaps from its saltness, partly from the changeableness of the surface, no plant would grow, save a few herbs and creepers which love the brackish water.

Only here and there an Echites had crawled out of the wood and lay along the ground, its long shoots gay with large cream-coloured flowers and pairs of glossy leaves; and on it, and on some dead brushwood, grew a lovely little parasitic Orchis, an Oncidium, with tiny fans of leaves, and flowers like swarms of yellow butterflies.
There was no track of man, not even a hunter's footprint; but instead, tracks of beasts in plenty.

Deer, quenco, {194a} and lapo, {194b} with smaller animals, had been treading up and down, probably attracted by the salt water.

They were safe enough, the old man said.

No hunter dare approach the spot.