Chap. III. A NATURALIST'S OCCUPATION. 183 



by water in a small montaria, with an Indian lad to 

 paddle. The neighbourhood yielded me, up to the last 

 day of my residence, an uninterrupted succession of new 

 and curious forms in the different classes of the animal 

 kingdom, but especially insects. 



I lived, as may already have been seen, on the best of 

 terms with the inhabitants of Ega. Refined society, of 

 course, there was none ; but the score or so of decent, 

 quiet families which constituted the upper class of the 

 place were very sociable ; their manners offered a curious 

 mixture of naive rusticity and formal politeness ; the 

 great desire to be thought civilised leads the most 

 ignorant of these people (and they are all very ignorant, 

 although of quick intelligence) to be civil and kind to 

 strangers from Europe. I was never troubled with that 

 impertinent curiosity on the part of the people in these 

 interior places which some travellers complain of in 

 other countries. The Indians and lower half-castes — at 

 least such of them who gave any thought to the subject 

 — seemed to think it natural that strangers should col- 

 lect and send abroad the beautiful birds and insects of 

 their country. The butterflies they universally con- 

 cluded to be wanted as patterns for bright-coloured 

 calico-prints. As to the better sort of peojDle, I had no 

 difficulty in making them understand that each Euro- 

 pean capital had a public museum, in which were sought 

 to be stored specimens of all natural productions in the 

 mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms. They could 

 not comprehend how a man could study science for its 

 own sake ; but I told them I was collecting for the 

 " Museo de Londres," and was paid for it ; that was 



