160 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



her cat confirmed the suspicion. If a cow died, or 

 a ^dllager wasted away with an unknown com- 

 plaint, Mary and her cat had it to answer for. 

 Her broom sometimes served her for a walking- 

 stick; and if ever she supported her tottering 

 frame with it as far as the May-pole, where once, 

 in youthful bloom and beauty, she had attracted 

 the eyes of all, the boys would surround her, and 

 make sport of her, while her cat had neither friend 

 nor safety beyond the cottage wall. Nobody con- 

 sidered it cruel or uncharitable to torment a 

 witch ; and it is probable, long before this, that 

 cruelty, old age, and want, have worn her out, and 

 that both poor Mary and her cat have ceased to be. 

 Would you wish to pursue the different species 

 of game, well stored and boundless is your range 

 in Demerara. Here no one dogs you, and after- 

 wards clandestinely inquires if you have a hun- 

 dred a year in land to entitle you to enjoy such 

 patrician sport. Here no saucy intruder asks if 

 you have taken out a licence, by virtue of which 

 you are allowed to kill birds which have bred upon 

 your own property. Here 



"You are as free as when God first made man, 

 Ere the vile laws of servitude began, 

 And wild in woods the noble savage ran." 



Before the morning's dawn you hear a noise in 

 the forest, which sounds like "duraquaura" often 

 repeated. This is the Partridge, a little smaller, 

 and differing somewhat in colour from the English 

 partridge ; it lives entirely in the forest, and prob- 

 ably the young brood very soon leave their par- 

 ents, as you never flush more than two birds in the 

 same place, and in general only one. 



