192 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



the song. He listened for a minute or two, and then 

 repeated them. The song consisted of a single verse. 

 The following is a nearly literal translation : — 



" My husband has ridden away, 



On his horse he has strapped the saddle : 



If I had known his intention 



[Lit.: If I had known this word], 



I would have snatched away his whip." 



About three miles beyond the station there is a 

 small tract of waste land. Scattered over it are some 

 clumps of a species of giant grass ; the central stem 

 of each clump is as thick as a bulrush, and grows to 

 a height — I write from memory — of from thirteen to 

 fifteen feet : the stem terminates in a feathery tuft. I 

 often pass this waste tract in my morning walk, and 

 I had noticed that the tops of many of these stems 

 bent over till the tufts at the end hung down nearly 

 perpendicularly, and suspended from each there was a 

 large pear-shaped lump nearly the size of a cocoa-nut. 



This morning I had the curiosity to examine these 

 lumps. I found that they were birds' nests, and birds' 

 nests of the most singular construction. The pear-shaped 

 lump was the actual nest ; it was attached to the 

 feathery tuft by a pendant of blades of dry grass most 

 ingeniously entwined ; and, what was even more curious, 

 there projected from the side of the nest, near the 

 bottom, where the nest was broadest, a sort of spout. 

 This spout curved downwards, and descended in very 

 much the form of a trumpet for the distance of at least 

 half a yard. This, my servant told me, was the passage 

 which led up to the entrance to the nest. 



