182 WANDERINGS IN 



It was not the last punishment of this good 

 gentleman in the river Paumaron. The next 

 large red night he was doomed to undergo a kind of ordeal 

 unknown in Europe. There is a species of large 

 red ant in Guiana, sometimes called Ranger, 

 sometimes Coushie. These ants march in mil- 

 lions through the country, in compact order, like 

 a regiment of soldiers; they eat up every insect 

 in their march; and if a house obstruct their 

 route, they do not turn out of the way, but go 

 quite through it. Though they sting cruelly 

 when molested, the planter is not sorry to see 

 them in his house ; for it is but a passing visit, 

 and they destroy every kind of insect vermin 

 that had taken shelter under his roof. 



Now, in the British plantations of Guiana, as 

 well as in Europe, there is always a little temple 

 dedicated to the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner 

 had chiefly consisted of crabs, dressed in rich and 

 different ways. Paumaron is famous for crabs, and 

 strangers who go thither, consider them the great- 

 est luxury. The Scotch gentleman made a very 

 capital dinner on crabs ; but this change of diet was 

 productive of unpleasant circumstances : he awoke 

 in the night in that state in which Virgil describes 

 Caeleno to have been, viz. " feedissima ventris pro- 

 luvies." Up he got, to verify the remark, 



" Serius aut citius, sedem properamus ad unam." 

 Now, unluckily for himself, and the nocturnal 



