CHAPTER XXL 



A CHARMING COUNTRY. 

 Indigenous Flowers Songs of War and Love A Wise Goat. 



WHEN seated at the pits just mentioned, enjoying the 

 antics of these embryo men and women, four strangers 

 joined us, who had a long and rather angry controversy 

 with the heads of our party. I was most anxious 

 to learn the purport of their conversation, but my 

 Tottie refused to gratify my curiosity until he had 

 learned further of it. The energy of the disputants, 

 and the vehemence with which they addressed one 

 another, was worthy of a Home Rule debate, when a 

 certain Irish member I wot of, has the floor, or 

 almost as forcibly reminded me of such scenes as 

 I have witnessed in the Levant, or even at Nix 

 Mangare Stairs, Malta, as to who should possess 

 a copper that had been thrown among the crowd. 

 At one moment you confidently expect to see each 



