All these tropical forests are absolutely impenetrable, except to axe and billhook, and after a trail has been laboriously opened, it needs to be cut once or twice a year, so rapid is the growth of vegetation.
It was the axes of their fathers that felled the trees, to sell for fuel, and the billhooks of their mothers that hacked away the bushes and grubbed up their very roots to burn on the household cooking hole.
That and a billhook stuck in his belt were his only weapons.
They grow perfectly well in hedges, and in the days of the billhook you could preserve the saplings.
The main difference is that the bear was holding a billhook.
It turns gradually more northward, resembling a billhook in plan.
The edge of a billhook is not bevelled to a very narrow angle to avoid binding in green wood.
The hoe and the billhook refer to agriculture and winegrowing.
