AMONG THE CARIBS. 85 



nearer, and I could distinguish two torches, held aloft 

 by unsteady hands, approaching through the forest. 



What did it mean? 



The noise increased, and when the lights flashed 

 nearer I saw there were three persons : two holding 

 the torches, which sent up broad flame and thick 

 smoke, supporting between them another who ap- 

 peared unable to walk unaided. They were shouting 

 some bacchanalian song, and their unsteady move- 

 ments convinced me that they were intoxicated. In a 

 few minutes they would be at my door, as they were 

 already at the river, and then there might be trouble ; 

 for, though quiet enough when sober, the Carib will 

 sometimes quarrel when drunk. 



Acting upon the resolution of the instant, I barri- 

 caded door and window, slipped a couple of cartridges 

 into my gun, and retired to my hammock. By this 

 time they were upon me, pounding heavily at my 

 door, and shouting, in unintelligible French, threats, 

 entreaties, imprecations. But I kept silence, which 

 only exasperated them the more, and at last I heard 

 one of them say, " I will see if he is there ; " and then, 

 later, when I thought they had gone, my attention 

 was drawn, by a slight rustling, to a crack in the 

 walls, and I saw sailing into the room one after an- 

 other, tiny sparks of fire, glowing with a greenish 

 phosphorescent light. They did not drop inert, these 

 sparks, nor did they set fire to my thatch, for they 

 were sparks of the animal kingdom, elaters, fire- 

 flies, two of which will give out sufficient light to 

 read by. 



Would any one but an Indian, a child of the forest, 

 have thought of this original way of lighting an apart- 

 ment? 



