MY FIRST CAMP. 29 
basking on a limb beneath the cliff, and had pinned it 
with a long bamboo, while his brother secured it with 
a noose made from a liane. I expressed a desire to 
obtain its skin, and hastened to do so, but a woman 
was already scorching the scales, which she afterward 
scraped off in water. It looked quite repulsive, but 
a piece which they later sent me I ate, finding it sweet, 
tender, and white, not unlike chicken. This is the 
season (March and April) when the iguana leaves the 
rocks and precipices, and takes to the trees. He lives 
on grass and leaves, principally, if not solely, and only 
frequents the trees, they say, during the dry season; 
then he is hunted. During the wet season he lives in 
his hole, or if he comes out he is hard to find. The 
dogs of Laudat are trained to hunt this lizard. 
I always held that for darning, pure and simple, 
our good old grandmothers of the good old times held 
rank par excellence. This was conclusively proven 
one day, when, having made a long rent in the leg of 
an old pair of trowsers, I took them to Mrs. Jean Bap- 
tiste to be repaired. As I turned to go I was arrested 
by an exclamation, and looking back found her at- 
tentively examining them. Now, they were very old; 
how they got mixed up with the rest of my wardrobe 
I do not know; but as they were there I made use of 
them in the woods, intending to leave them there, 
peradventure they survived. 
Years before they had been patched by my grand- 
mother ; that maternal relative had a passion for darn- 
ing perfectly unaccountable. Like Alexander, she 
would shed tears when there were no more conquests 
to make in her world of darning, and a new pair of 
pantaloons, or a coat without a rent, was to her a 
