64 MONTSEFdiA T. 



eiiuniious trunk across the .stream ; then back past the site 

 ot" the ajoupa, which had been our host's first shelter, and 

 wliich had disa2)peared by a cause strange enough to English 

 ears. An enormous silk-cotton near by was felled, in spite 

 of the Xegros' fears. Its boughs, when it fell, did not reach 

 the ajoupa by twenty feet or more ; but the wand of its fall 

 did, and blew the hut clean away. This may sound like a 

 story out of Munchausen : but there was no doubt of the 

 fact ; and to us wdio saw the size of the tree which did the 

 deed it seemed probable enough. 



AYe rode aw^ay again, and into the " Morichal," the hills 

 where Moriche palms are found; to see certain springs and 

 a certain tree ; and w^ell w^orth seeing they were. Out of the 

 base of a limestone hill, amid delicate ferns, under the shade 

 of enormous trees, a clear pool bubbled up and ran away, 

 a stream from its very birth, as is the W'Ont of limestone 

 springs. It was a spot fit for a Greek nymph ; at least for 

 an Indian damsel : but the nymph wdio came to draw^ water 

 in a tin bucket, and stared stupidly and saucily at us, was 

 anything but Greek, or even Indian, either in costume or 

 manners. Be it so. White men are responsible for her being 

 there ; so white men must not complain. Then we went in 

 search of the tree. We had passed as w^e rode up some 

 Huras (sandbox trees), which would have been considered 

 giants in England; and I had been laughed at more than 



