В стране дремучих трав

From the author's preface: "Amazing living creatures own this country. Some of them, being on the hunt, with such accuracy, are able to hit their prey with their stylet that it cannot move from its place - it remains neither alive nor dead. Other creatures here dress up like this that the enemy, being very close, does not notice them. They seem to turn invisible. Some inhabitants of this country live so secretly for ten years that one cannot even think that they exist. But then they change their way of life, appear for a short time and they die. For tens of kilometers, the inhabitants of this country find the direction they need. Here it happens that some creatures, wanting to get rid of an uninvited guest who has entered their city, attack him and wall him up alive in the wall. From what only do not build houses here! Not only from wood, but from paper and silk, from cement and leaves. Cardboard and thread, hammocks and clay pots, wax, cotton wool, alcohol are made in this country ... " Bookinist edition, 1962