THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN GUIANA. 655 



boards appear to be uninjured, but you can almost put your 

 finger through them on account of the numerous channels and 

 excavations of these apparently helpless little creatures. 



The hardback a black, chaferlike beetle is very conspicu- 

 ous after the rains have drenched the ground. They pass their 

 larval stage in the earth and are driven forth in myriads. Not so 

 disgusting as the cockroaches, they are yet very troublesome. 

 They fly to the lights in your sitting room and drop upon your 

 book as you are reading, or inside your collar. As for the ladies, 

 they seem to be peculiarly open to such crawlers, as they have so 

 much drapery, but the Creoles take hardbacks almost as a matter 

 of course. We remember, however, one occasion at an evening 

 entertainment when these beetles spoiled half the pleasure of the 

 female part of the audience. They came in literally by thou- 

 sands, and, flying in their blundering way at the gaslights, fell 

 upon the people below. Evening dress was worn by the ladies, 

 and this made the matter so much the worse. Some shuddered 

 as they felt them crawling over their bare necks, and there was 

 a continual movement of the hands to pick them off. When we 

 state that the beetles were swept up next morning by pailfuls, 

 some idea can be formed of their number. 



Moths also appear in great numbers at this time. The flowers 

 open, and those that are nocturnal perfume the air, bringing the 

 insects to your garden. The white flowers shine in the darkness, 

 but not so brightly as your gaslights, and it follows that many a 

 sphinx comes in and commits suicide. Smaller insects also appear, 

 so that what with one and another a table under the lamp is lit- 

 tered with hundreds of the dead and dying before you go to bed. 



As these come indoors, some of their enemies follow. Centi- 

 peds, scorpions, and spiders leave the garden and look for the 

 luscious cockroach in his new quarters. Web-making spiders are 

 not very conspicuous, but those which hunt veritable beasts of 

 prey lurk in every corner. To see one of them spring upon a 

 cockroach is as interesting, perhaps, as the attack of a tiger upon 

 an ox. And, when the spider has taken all he wants, the ants 

 come and carry off the remainder. There they go, marching up 

 the wall, a hundred tiny creatures carrying between them the 

 monster corpse, probably weighing more than a thousand of its 

 bearers. We have often wondered at such a sight, and thought 

 of the difficulty of carrying a heavy weight under such circum- 

 stances. 



Under the ground floor our cat had kittened, but we did not 

 know of the fact until the first great downpour of the season. 

 Waiting under cover until the rain abated, we saw puss come out 

 bearing a little, half-drowned creature in her mouth, which she 

 carried to a dry place. A torrent came pouring down the gutter 



