344 ^ YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



ingless, though they may have had some significance to the 

 actors. There was a band and when it played the gay com- 

 pany danced, singly or in couples. One particularly lively 

 dancer was a girl in pink crumpled tissue paper. The mas- 

 ter of the ceremonies was a young man who wore no mask 

 but was powdered quite white and had a pretty little pen- 

 cilled mustache. He wore a gilt cap with a feather, a sort 

 of belted Russian blouse, and close-fitting white breeches, 

 and was a most exquisite and graceful dancer. He made 

 little jokes and puns, ending each speech (which was always 

 addressed to some one person) in a curious singsong voice. 

 This was a signal to the band and as the music began he 

 glided into a dance — a solo performance which seemed 

 offered as a toast to the person addressed. After the toasts, 

 alcoholic refreshments were served to the principals — all 

 this according to immemorial custom — then there were more 

 dances and all trooped off again. It is noteworthy that 

 custom also settled who should be refreshed and there was 

 no pushing or scrambling, or demanding. 



While P. was in Guanacaste, A. spent the greater part of 

 January, 1910, at El Brazil, returning to Cartago at intervals 

 to feed the live stock, record moults and preserve exuviae. 

 The dry season had then been long established. There 

 was a great difference in the vegetation between this visit 

 and our first in September. The higuerones had lost all 

 their old leaves and now were covered with young leaves 

 and leaf buds of brilliant red, most beautiful against the 

 deep blue sky. The guanacaste in front of the office was en- 

 tirely bare of leaves. Mangoes and urucas, in September 

 past fruiting, were now in flower. Jocotes had lost most of 

 their leaves and were full of small dark red blossoms borne 

 in short clusters on the main or larger branches. The thick 

 drapery of Selaginella and ferns on the banks was now with- 

 ered and represented by a tangle of little blackened dried 



