THROUGH THE COASTAL WILDERNESS. 22/ 



friends. Our jovial host furnished us with lights, and gave 

 us permission to sling our hammocks from the rafters of the 

 great school-room. About one o'clock in the morning we 

 rolled into our swinging couches completely tired out. But 

 sleep was not to be had at once. An ominous gritting squeak 

 was heard, then another, and our faces were softly fanned by 

 invisible wings. "Vampires!" came the exclamation from 

 the furthermost hammock. "Never mind them," answered 

 a sleepy voice from Mr. Wilshire's hammock; "doctors say 

 bleeding is healthful!" The scientist echoed his sentiments 

 but in vain. We had to dive down into the clothing bags and 

 pull out the hammock nets. Now these articles are some- 

 what difficult to adjust under the best of conditions and this 

 night they were perversity itself. 



We found that in the packing at Hoorie, the nets had 

 become mixed and two were of an unknown pattern, with 

 apparently no entrance hole except at the ends. A hammock 

 net is shaped like a buttoned up coat with the hammock 

 running through tin- sleeve portions. It is an acrobatic feat 

 not soon to be forgotten, when one is dead tired and in the 

 dark, and has to enter his net by climbing up to the end of 

 the hammock rope- and sliding down through a small, long 

 shute of netting! It was two in the morning before we were 

 sellled, and as we finally dropped asleep a score of fierce 

 little demon faces were squeaking and gibbering at us. 



At six o'clock the following morning we were awakened 

 by a dozen little naked Indian boys flitting silently about, 

 peering at us like tiny copper elves, or like human incarnations 

 of the bats which had hovered about us during the night. 

 Going outdoors in the dusk we heard a perfect medley of 

 bird notes, Wrens, Thrushes, Tanagcrs, Seedeaters, all giving 

 voice at once, while from the farther end of the cocoanut walk 

 came a chorus from a colony of Yellow-backed Cassiques. 151 

 We saw the mission cat teasing something and took from her 



