288 MAGIC-LANTHORN. 



the native Indians, who came attired for the occasion in 

 their best habiliments, and even those spectators of the 

 fairer sex were more decently covered than is their wont, 

 and all assumed the most modest and well behaved de- 

 portment. Bursts of unrestrained merriment occasionally 

 uprose, as some ridiculous phantasm, more fantastic than 

 ordinary, met their wondering eyes. The short lace jackets, 

 partially veiling, but not quite concealing the bosom, the 

 sarong, tightly fitting about the hips, and the small bare 

 feet, with the tips of the toes resting in little embroidered 

 slippers, set off the well-made, symmetrical forms of the 

 young girls, many of whom were really pretty. 



Among the plants that grow wild in these islands, is 

 the Datura tatula, an aromatic Absinthium, much valued 

 as an anthelmintic and stomachic by the natives ; an 

 aromatic plant, very much like the Teucrium Scorodonia; 

 a species oiLamium, with large showy purple flowers; the 

 red and yellow-flowered Canna ; the Spondias dulcis, and 

 Ebony (Diospyrus melanoxylori) ; the Sweet-scented Violet 

 (Viola odoratd), a very palatable mountain Raspberry, the 

 Castor-oil plant, and Convolvulus. 



The insects which appear to be most common among 

 the Bashees belong to the Rhynochophora and Chrysome- 

 lid(B. Small jumping beetles, Haltica, commonly known 

 by the name of " Garden Fleas ", are very numerous, as 

 are several Scutetterida ; one Cattidea, in particular, with 

 a purple thorax, and light-green elytra, with black spots, 

 is a very common insect. In some parts, the leaves are 

 covered with innumerable larvae of a handsomely-marked 

 species of Cassida, all of them being concealed under little 

 tents, formed out of their own excrement. A Cereopis, with 



