I36 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



— the same in which the hog had disappeared the day 

 before. Selecting a long reed an inch and a half in 

 diameter, he cut it off with his cutlass. The joints in 

 this reed were about four inches apart, and it was a 

 hollow tube partitioned at the joints ; upon the outside 

 of each grew a lateral branch. Trimming off the 

 small shoot and cutting the larger part off about 

 three inches each side of it, he had then a double- 

 ended cup with a firm handle, divided in the middle. 

 Upon our return to the village, Meyong covered this 

 cup very neatly with basket-work ; and I have it now 

 before me as I write. 



Towards night, I took my gun and wandered a little 

 way from camp to try to shoot some of the immense 

 vampire bats that haunted the forest. My attention 

 being taken up with the many objects about me, I 

 wandered farther than I had intended, and darkness 

 fell about me at a distance from the camp. If the 

 days are glorious, the tropic nights are grand ; im- 

 pressive in the deep brooding silence, until the insects 

 of the night break the stillness, or the hoot of the owl, 

 or the shriek of the diablotin, disturbs it. 



I had been seated a little while and it had grown 

 quite dark, and I was about returning, when, as I 

 moved, a stick crackled sharply, thrilling me through 

 with a strange feeling of fear. It was nothing but a 

 dry twig upon which I myself had stepped, yet an 

 unaccountable dread of moving possessed me at that 

 moment, as though I felt the presence of another 

 person near, whom I could not see. As I walked, I 

 peered all about me, but could see nothing. Yet, during 

 all that short walk I felt as if in the presence of a 

 powerful man about to lay his hand on my shoulder. 



