8 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
hibit. I, and all the law-breakers who followed, 
recognized the nine tenths involved in this in- 
stance and carefully stepped around. When the 
heavy things began to arrive, I approached dif- 
fidently, and half suggested, half directed her 
deliberate hops toward a safer corner. My feel- 
ings toward her were mingled, but altogether 
kindly,—as guest in her home, I could not but 
treat her with respect,—while my scientific soul 
revelled in the addition of Bufo guttatus to the 
fauna of this part of British Guiana. Whether 
flashing gold of oriole, or the blinking solemnity 
of a great toad, it mattered little—Kartabo had 
welcomed me with as propitious an omen as had 
Kalacoon. 
Houses have distinct personalities, either be- 
queathed to them by their builders or tenants, 
absorbed from their materials, or emanating from 
the general environment. Neither the mind. 
which had planned our Kartabo bungalow, nor 
the hands which fashioned it; neither the mahog- 
any walls hewn from the adjoining jungle, nor 
the white-pine beams which had known many 
decades of snowy winters—none of these were 
obtrusive. The first had passed into oblivion, 
