r>!3? VARIETIFS. 



ff the latter be the reason, it must be attributed to the cal- 

 careous nature of the soil. 



8. Crustacea in Anegada. — The species of Crustacea are 

 numerous, and afford a considerable addition to the sustenance 

 of the inhabitants. The number of Astaisis, Scyllarius, and 

 Cancer, which may be caught in the reefs, and during night, 

 on the rocky shores on the north side, is considerable. 



SCHEMBURGK. 



9. Honey in Madagascar. — In Madagascar they have six 

 sorts of honey, called in the language of the country tentele : 

 bees' honey, called voatentele ; honey from certain green flies, 

 called sih ; and two sorts of honey from ants ; one sort is from 

 winged ants, and is gathered from the hollow trees, the other 

 sort from ants of a larger size, without wings, who make their 

 honey in vontaiames, or great heaps of earth, pointed at the 

 top, and pierced round with holes, full of these ants ; all which 

 sorts of honey are exceedingly sweet. There is still another 

 sort of honey, or rather sugar, being harder and sweeter, called 

 tentele sacondre ; honey-flies, called sacondre, lay this on the 

 leaves of particular shrubs, and are transformed afterwards into 

 small yellow, green, or red lumps. Many, with great reason, 

 have held this honey, or sugar, to be the Arabian tahaxir, not 

 the sacarmambu, or sugar of bamboo canes, whose juice is no 

 better than insipid starch. There is yet another sort of honey, 

 esteemed poisonous, being made by bees which suck the flowers 

 of a particular tree that produces a strong poison. This tree 

 is found in one part of the province of Anossi, or Carcanossi, 

 and is called caracgrac. — Univ. Hist. vol. xi. p. 420. 



10. Insect ivorshipped by the Hottentots, — The Hottentots 

 adore, and honour with the highest veneration, a small winged 

 insect, with two horns, with a green back and belly, speckled 

 with red and white. Upon the arrival of this animal, which is 

 regarded as the lord of the universe, the inhabitants, believing 

 all past offences purged and buried in oblivion, resolve, as a 

 new people, on a reform of life, believing the immortality of 

 the soul. The person, of either sex, on whom this insect ac- 

 cidentally settles, is ever afterwards distinguished and respected 

 as sacred, and a favourite of this deity, &c. 



