MY FIRST CAMP. 



2 9 



basking on a limb beneath the cliff, and had pinned it 

 with a long bamboo, while his brother secured it with 

 a noose made from a liane. I expressed a desire to 

 obtain its skin, and hastened to do so, but a woman 

 was already scorching the scales, which she afterward 

 scraped oft* in water. It looked quite repulsive, but 

 a piece which they later sent me I ate, finding it sweet, 

 tender, and white, not unlike chicken. This is the 

 season (March and April) when the iguana leaves the 

 rocks and precipices, and takes to the trees. He lives 

 on grass and leaves, principally, if not solely, and only 

 frequents the trees, they say, during the dry season ; 

 then he is hunted. During the wet season he lives in 

 his hole, or if he comes out he is hard to find. The 

 dogs of Laudat are trained to hunt this lizard. 



I always held that for darning, pure and simple, 

 our good old grandmothers of the good old times held 

 rank -par excellence. This was conclusively proven 

 one day, when, having made a long rent in the leg of 

 an old pair of trowsers, I took them to Mrs. Jean Bap- 

 tiste to be repaired. As I turned to go I was arrested 

 by an exclamation, and looking back found her at- 

 tentively examining them. Now, they were very old ; 

 how they got mixed up with the rest of my wardrobe 

 I do not know ; but as they were there I made use of 

 them in the woods, intending to leave them there, 

 peradventure they survived. 



Years before they had been patched by my grand- 

 mother ; that maternal relative had a passion for darn- 

 ing perfectly unaccountable. Like Alexander, she 

 would shed tears when there were no more conquests 

 to make in her world of darning, and a new pair of 

 pantaloons, or a coat without a rent, was to her a 



