CRABS. 53 



the hill-side. As the spawning season approaches, a 

 mighty gathering of the clans takes place, and whole 

 legions unwarned by fiery cross, or blazing beacon, 

 hasten forth to join the living tide flowing onward to- 

 wards the sea. Through the tangled jungle, dow^n the 

 rock-strewn ravine, over fallen tree-trunks, and among 

 the dense undergrowth of the forest, in ceaseless, creep- 

 ing, crawling, scuttling thousands; still they come 

 onward, and ever onward, as the bright stars shine out 

 to light them on their way. Banks, hedges, walls, and 

 even houses are passed straight over in this crustacean 

 steeplechase, no flags being needed to keep the mail- 

 clad competitors to the true course — instinct the guide, 

 and the blue sea for a goal, nothing stops the race. 



Cuffee and his companions, who have been gossiping 

 and story-telling beneath their cocoa-leaf roofs until 

 half-asleep, appear to become most violent and in- 

 curable lunatics, on suddenly becoming aware of the noc- 

 turnal exodus : they leap high in the air, shout, scream, 

 and dance like fiends, whilst the most ready-witted of 

 the crew dash off to de massa with the startling news. 

 " Hi, golly, sa ; de Crab, de Crab ! he come for sure 

 dis time, sure nuff ; plenty catch um bum by ; " and 

 Cuffee keeps his word to the letter, and captures the 

 pilgrims by the basketful, in spite of their claws ; and 

 black-faced woolley-headed Aunt Lilly, the cook, shows 

 her teeth like ivory dominoes in an ebony box, as 



