306 COCOA-NUT TREE. 



blue, black, green, and yellow beetles ; taran- 

 tulas, and other spiders, of all sorts and sizes and 

 colours ; whilst, running from branch to branch, 

 the detested rat seemed to imitate the motions 

 and equal in agility the beautiful tri-striped 

 squirrel, or lena of this paradise, (as the glad 

 rajah and his suite at that time considered it,) of 

 the universe. 



The novel fruit was, at first with some diffi- 

 culty, opened ; but the rajah's superstitions were 

 more powerful than even the effects of hunger 

 itself. With awe, he approached the beach, 

 over which wave followed wave in quick suc- 

 cession ; whilst the surf beat with violence 

 against the roots of those stately trees, which 

 seemed to thrive best where no other tree of any 

 utility whatever could survive even a temporary 

 sprinkling from the briny spray. 



Mute with astonishment at the vast expanse 

 of ocean, which he then for the first time ap- 

 proached, the rajah bent to taste the liquid ali- 

 ment. It was as his vision prognosticated. Again 

 his wonder was increased ; but his faith had kept 

 pace with it, in the full belief, that " ere the 

 great moon had thrice given and refused her 

 light," he would be cleansed from his foul dis- 

 temper ; and his disrespectful demeanor under 

 the sacred Bogaha, which had originally drawn 



