234 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



and of every vestige of bodily juices, the 

 leaves opened, dropped the mangled and des- 

 sicated frames to the ground and cynically 

 opened their fell jaws for more victims. 

 Undeterred by the litter of corpses that cum- 

 bered the surrounding ground, other insects 

 crowded in to taste of the viscid juice which 

 the leaves exuded. This was the bait tempt- 

 ing to their doom moths, butterflies, beetles 

 and other minor fauna. Here was Capitalism 

 playing on the greed and credulity of the 

 crowd, — gorging on the life-blood of its hap- 

 less dupes, — flourishing and waxing strong 

 amid the ruin of its countless victims. 



My eye was caught by a quivering twig; on 

 it was a chameleon. The reptile was nearly 

 nine inches long. His colour was brown, of a 

 shade exactly the same as that of the twig. He 

 moved forward with slow, hesitating steps; 

 he paced like an amateur on the tight-rope, as 

 though afraid of falling. His swivel eye- 

 cases, each with a tiny, diamond-bright speck 

 in the centre, moved about independently of 

 each other. One was focussed on a little green 

 insect waving its antennae on a leaf six inches 

 in front of him ; the other was carefully trained 

 backwards over his left shoulder at me. Flick 

 — and his tongue shot out and in so rapidly 



