A NATURAL ILLUMINATION. 117 



stincts, he very politely indulged my curiosity with 

 several particulars that he had seen in different parts 

 of Asia. But nothing delighted me so much as the 

 extraordinary contrivance of a certain species of spar- 

 row,* found in Hindostan, which, in the night-time, 

 lights up her nest with glow-worms j and, after col- 

 lecting them for this purpose, she fastens them to the 

 inside of her nest, by means of a peculiar kind of 

 clay, of a glutinous nature. What an elegant illumi- 

 nation, could our minds be divested of the sufferings 

 of the poor glow-worms, whose brilliancy subjects 

 them to a painful death ! They forai an apt emblem 

 of beauty, that so often misleads its possessor into 

 error and folly. 



The subject is less pleasing, but the conduct of 

 the creatures that are exposed to each other's fury, 

 in the combats of wild beasts, in the island of Java, 

 at which this gentleman was present, marks their 

 instincts for self-defence in a very strong point of 

 view.t 



When a tiger and a buffalo are to fight for the 

 amusement of the court, they are both brought upon 

 the field of combat in large cages. The place is sur- 

 rounded by a body of Javanese, four deep, with 

 levelled pikes, in order that, if the creatures endea- 



* Asiatic Annual Register, 1802. 

 t Stavorinus' Voyages to the East Indies. 



