340 Voyage of the Novara. 



cared. Padre Lorenzo could hardly believe his eyes when 

 he beheld the naturalist engaged in such a bloody business, 

 apparently on precisely the most agreeable spot of the whole 

 terrace, and performing the various dissections requisite upon 

 the dead bodies of some couple of dozen of birds. In what- 

 ever direction one turned in the apartment, the eye en- 

 countered nothing but birds of variegated plumage, gigantic 

 Kalong bats, monkeys, or else barrels filled with spirits of 

 wine, in which were preserved snakes, fish, and other small 

 inhabitants of the deep. The poor padre, accustomed to 

 peaceful meditation and full of simplicity, appeared quite 

 convinced he must have sinned grievously that such a visita- 

 tion should have overtaken him, as that this horde of 

 foreigners should have disturbed the repose of his peaceful 

 asylum with such appalling practices. The youths of the 

 village, encouraged by the promise of remuneration, busied 

 themselves with yet further increasing our zoological collec- 

 tion, and made their appearance, breathless with running, 

 each with some still more curious and important object to 

 show to the strange gentleman, who found such interest in 

 snakes and insects, that he even paid money down for them ! 

 Padre Lorenzo, however, was ere long rid of his singular 

 guests, with whom he could even not get upon an intel- 

 ligible footing. On the same day on which the hunt among 

 the swamps of Calamba took place in the morning, the Expe- 

 ditionary party returned from Los Baiibs, and by way of re- 

 compense to the obliging padre for the discomfort inflicted, 



