256 TiMEHRI. 



that the chield that catched it wishes to gar folk believe 

 that elka ane can sivallow it-^some folk mun ha'e strange 

 stamacks." 



" I waited no longer, but posted off to my friend the 

 Naturalist, immortalized in the Chronicles of Guiana, in 

 hopes of having some light thrown on the above mysteri- 

 ous conversation. — I found him in deep thought contem- 

 plating a bloody sword that lay on the table ; he started 

 on my advancing, and bent his brows in displeasure on 

 me, but on my apologizing for my intrusion and explaining 

 the cause of my visit, his countenance relaxed its aus- 

 terity, and he courteously beckoned me to a chair — after 

 a silence of a few minutes, with a deep-drawn sigh, he 

 related the following circumstances, which I shall give 

 in his own words : — 



" After returning to the Mora tree with the second 

 Arawatoyano I had murdered, I sat down with a gloomy 

 presentiment of some evil ; and was soon so deeply 

 wrap'd in thought that the shadows of evening weie fast 

 descending before I began to refle6l on the loneliness of 

 my situation. I was roused bv the low growlings of the 

 Beasts of the Forest — the winds had risen to ^ hurricane, 

 the clouds rolled in thick volumes over my head, and as 

 the distant thunder gave awful note of an impending 

 storm, the crashing of the trees strewed in all dire6lions, 

 convinced me it would be madness to proceed farther 

 that night. The size of the Mora and the imperious 

 thickness of its foliage banished all fear of its fall, or my 

 suffering any inconvenience from the rain which now 

 began to descend in torrents. Night had now spread 

 his mantle over the Forest, and the lightening, which 

 at intervals flashed on the scene merely tended to 



