WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 191 



kind of insect vermin that has taken shelter under 

 his roof. 



Now, in the British plantations of Guiana, as 

 well as in Europe, there is always a little temple 

 dedicated to the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner 

 had chiefly consisted of crabs, dressed in rich 

 and different ways. Paumaron is famous for 

 crabs, and strangers who go thither consider them 

 the greatest luxury. The Scotch gentleman made 

 a very capital dinner on crabs ; but this change of 

 diet was productive of unpleasant circumstances : 

 he awoke in the night in that state in which Virgil 

 describes Caeleno to have been, viz. '^fsedissima 

 ventris proluvies." Up he got, to verify the re- 

 mark, 



"Serius aut citius, sedem properamus acl unara." 



Now, unluckily for himself, and the nocturnal 

 tranquility of the planter's house, just at that un- 

 fortunate hour, the Coushie Ants were passing 

 across the seat of Cloacina 's temple; he had 

 never dreamed of this; and so, turning his face 

 to the door, he placed himself in the usual situa- 

 tion which the votaries of the goddess generally 

 take. Had a lighted match dropped upon a pound 

 of gunpowder, as he afterwards remarked, it 

 could not have caused a greater recoil. Up he 

 jumped, and forced his way out, roaring for help 

 and for a light, for he was worried alive by ten 

 thousand devils. The fact is, he had sat down 

 upon an intervening body of coushie ants. Many 

 of those which escaped being crushed to death, 

 turned again, and, in revenge, stung the uninten- 

 tional intruder most severely. The watchman had 



