THE TROPICAL REGIONS. 135 
humming-birds, and fly-catchers—gems animated and mobile, which 
incessantly flutter to and fro, At night—a far more astonishing 
scene !—begins the fairylike illumination of shining fire-flies, which, 
by thousands of millions, weave the most fantastic arabesques, dazzling 
fantasias of light, magical scrolls of fire. 
With all this splendour there lurks in the lower levels an obscure 
race, a hideous and foul world of caymans, of water-serpents, To the 
trunks of enormous trees the fanciful orchids, the well-loved daughters 
of fever, the children of a miasmatic atmosphere, quaint vegetable 
butterflies, suspend themselves in seeming flight. In these murderous 
solitudes they take their delight, and bathe in the putrid swamps, 
drink of the death which inspires them with vitality, and, by the 
caprice of their unheard-of colours, make sport of the intoxication of 
nature. 
Do not yield—defend yourself—let not the fatal charm bow down 
your sinking head. Awake! arouse! under a hundred forms the 
danger surrounds you. Yellow fever lurks beneath these flowers, 
and the black vomito ; reptiles trail at your feet. If you gave way 
to fatigue, a noiseless army of implacable anatomists would take 
possession of you, and with a million lancets convert all your 
tissues into an admirable bit of lacework, a gauze veil, a breath, 
nothingness. 
To this all-absorbing abyss of devouring death, of famished life, 
what does God oppose to re-assure us? Another abyss, not less 
famished, thirsty of life, but less implacable to man. I sce the Bird, 
and I breathe ! 
What! is it in you, ye living flowers, ye winged topazes and 
sapphires, that I shall find my safety? Your saving vehemence it is, 
excited to the purification of this superabundant and furious fecundity, 
that alone renders practicable the entrance to this dangerous realm 
of faéry. Were you absent, jealous Nature would perform her mys- 
terious labour of solitary fermentation, and not even the most daring 
savant would venture upon observing her. Who amI here? And 
how shall I defend myself? What power would be sufficient? The 
