ARMIES OF LEECHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21021, 9 May 1930, Page 16

ARMIES OF LEECHES.

BULWARK OP KANDYAN KINGDOM. H°y an ancient jungle kingdom was able to preserve its independence from European invaders for 300 years, largely .through the protection afforded it by vast armies of tiny leeches, is described by Casey A. Wood, Smithsonian Institution ornithologist, in the annual report just issued, telling of his adventure with wild animals while he was on a collecting expedition in the interior of Ceylon. Discounting the deadly cobra, the buffalo and the “ rogue ” elephant as enemies of man, Mr Wood says the most dreaded of the jungle creatures are this little leech and a giant red ant which, builds nests like a bird, attacks ferociously when disturbed, and whose bite is poison-, ous to some persons. But it is the little land leech, scarcely more than an inch long, whose hunger for human blood has made it an important factor in the military and political history of the island. / One meets it everywhere on the' island, where the rainfall is sufficient,” Mr Wood is an agile and exceedingly nimble little animal. Attached to the top or a grass stem or exposed leaf, it lies m wait, waving about in the air, with eyes and smelling apparatus alert, awaiting «< r,P. ass its warm-blooded victim. . . llle , bite is not painful, but the incision Weeds freely. The chief danger ot the bites is from the several hundred teeth of this wicked little creature with me secondary infections, ulcers, etc./ that tollow the triangular incisions made by

■9°. 6 ,tbe chief defences of the !f to ?k Kan^ ail kingdom for 300 years atter the subjugation of the rest of the island was the vast multitudes of leeches, that infested the wet, impassable mountam jungle that lay between the eetboard and Kandy, and through which an invading army must march. ° ne of .many such incidents, in a force or Portuguese soldiers, on their way to attack the Kandyan king were encamped in the midst of rank graas and marshy pools infested with myriads of leeches. Clothes afforded no protect¥ir needle-like bodies. HnnS# ’ dropped in streams .of blood from the eyelids and ears of the nd had b P Plucked out of their very gums as they, ate their food. Rest i fc ° f the esti °n s for the voracious animals swarmed on all sides in everffitaffiSf*"- rapedm ° n w be J ai< be armed wrth veritable , , natlv ® will ascend a tree for are actjve colonies Trrt d i ants on or branches" „ f ” h PP recounting a verified, instance a king cobra actually a man m an automobile, striking at the moving P ar and. trying to board It to got at ieWound IC HfTI’ S “ ith fonian natural- • . round little to he feared in the rardyTs bittern' A T** 6 man iQ Ccylon