54 CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



visions of white, snow-like rice, cocoa-nut milk, capsi- 

 cum pods, and steAvpans pass in pleasing and appetising 

 review before her, and massa himself takes an extra 

 pull at the cold sangaree jug, sleeps pleasantly, and 

 dreams of the Crab feast of the morrow. 



At the. termination of the spawning season the sur- 

 vivors return to theii* homes among the hills ; and but 

 little notice is taken of them now, as they night by night 

 bend their weary steps on the backward march, poor, 

 low-conditioned, and unfit for human food, like the 

 salmon-kelt on his journey to the sea. A short resi- 

 dence in his earth burrow serves to set our friend the 

 Crab on his legs again, and make even better food of 

 him than can be prepared during the migration. Sugar- 

 cane plantations are his delight, and in them he re- 

 gales himself like an alderman, nipping through the 

 crisp rind of the sugar-bearing reed, sucking the 

 luscious juices and clawing out the sweet contents, 

 until a rustling sound warns him that Xemesis, in the 

 form of our old friend Cuffee, is not far off, and that 

 active individual, accompanied by a prick-eared cur, and 

 armed with a spike-pointed cane, pounces down on the 

 very spot where G. ruricola, Esq. had been so plea- 

 santly regaling himself, and now commences a fierce 

 and relentless action. 



Cuffee, Cur, and S2oike, v. Crab. Ever on the alert. 

 Crab darts off backwards with astonishing rapidity, 



