76 TROPIC DAYS 



and she has swallow-tails too. The wider black margin 

 on her wings is no badge of subserviency, but rather an 

 additional charm inciting tremulous fascination. She 

 may soar over the mango-trees with case as careless 

 as his, and slide down straight to the red flowers with 

 like certainty. She is not to be bewildered by his 

 gyrations, nor thrilled by mock hostile swoops. How- 

 ever sprightly his activities, she has a mood to corre- 

 spond and power to mimic. Indeed, is she not indifferent ? 

 — so much on an equality with him that she might say : 



" If thou thinkest I am too easily won, 

 I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay." 



Might she not say more at the moment, since her 

 airs are those of independence ? Possibly she imagines 

 hers to be the superior sex. Is she to be distinguished 

 from her wooer as she flits from him disdainfully? 

 Can she not imitate his most audacious feats ? Ah ! 

 but for how long may she restrain primal emotions ? 

 The blue-mantled dandy understands his art. His 

 wings beat with the passion of the dominant lover. 

 He tosses himself before her, impeding her flight until 

 she imitates his antics. Tossing is not the privilege 

 of his sex. She exercises her right to toss, and the pair 

 toss in delightful but bewildering confusion, like jewels 

 sent skyward by a conjurer. And thus having estab- 

 lished her rights if not her equality, she consents to play 

 the part Nature decrees, and the pair tumble and toss 

 over the mango-trees, while half a dozen others sip 

 contentedly the red flowers. 



Many other winged creatures flit and glisten in the 

 garden and down along the grass-invaded path between 

 the coco-nuts. Dragon-flies hover over the moist spots, 

 transparent wings carrying coral-red bodies, and two 

 sand-wasps pilot my steps, following the narrow ribbon 



