160 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Cb. IX. 



As 1 sat upon the rocks in the cool shade, enjoying 

 the scene, there came hobbling along, with painful steps, 

 on the other side of the river, a poor cripple, afflicted 

 with that horrible disease, elephantiasis. He crossed 

 the river with great ^difficulty, as his feet were swollen to 

 six times their natural size, with great horny callosities. 

 One of his hands was also disabled ; and altogether he 

 was a most pitiable object. Such a sight seemed a blot 

 upon the fair face of nature : but it is our sympathy for 

 our kind that makes us think so. If the trees w r ere 

 sympathetic beings, not a poor crippled specimen of 

 humanity would have their pity, but the gnarled and 

 half-rotten giants of the forest, threatening to topple 

 down with every breeze ; whilst to our eyes the dying 

 tree, covered with moss and ferns, and, may be, clasped 

 by climbing vines, would be a picturesque and pleasing 

 sight. So the fishes would pity their comrades caught 

 by the king-fisher, the birds those in the claws of the 

 hawk every creature considering the fate that overtook 

 its fellows, and which might befall itself the great blot 

 in nature's plan. 



The poor cripple told me he was going into Juigalpa. 

 He had, doubtless, heard that a stranger had arrived in 

 the town ; for every time I had been there he had turned 

 up. His best friends are the foreigners, who look with 

 greater pity on his misfortune than his neighbours, who 

 have grown accustomed to it. 



The blind, the lame, and the sick are the only beggars 

 I ever saw in Nicaragua. The necessaries of life are 

 easily procured. Very little clothing is required. Any 

 one may plant maize or bananas ; and there is plenty of 

 work for all who are willing or necessitated to labour ; 



