ARRIVAL OF A PRIEST. 



97 



are preserved is sawed or cut in some particular 

 manner, which I cannot exactly describe, by 

 which means the honey can be taken out. The 

 honey is always liquid. It is used as a medicine 

 rather than as food, for the small quantities of it 

 which are to be obtained render the demand of 

 it for the medical men fully equal to the 

 supply. * 



In the month of November there arrived a 

 priest upon a visit to the vicar, whose exertions 

 are incessant on every subject which relates to 

 the improvement of his country. He had now 

 been staying with a friend in the province of 

 Paraiba, and had made a drawing of a stone upon 

 which were carved a great number of unknown 

 characters and several figures, one of which had 

 the appearance of being intended to represent a 

 woman. The stone or rock is large, and stands 

 in the middle of the bed of a river, which is quite 

 dry in the summer. When the inhabitants of the 

 neighbourhood saw him at work in taking this 

 drawing, they said, that there were several others 

 in different parts of the vicinity, and they gave 



* Labat, in the Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais, a 

 Cayenne, Sfc vol. iii. p. 253. gives an account of the bees 

 which corresponds in some respects with mine. He says, 

 '• FJlcs nont point d'aiguillon, ou il est si foible quil ne pent 

 entamer I'fyiderme, aussi sans j)rtparation et sans crainte on les 

 prend a pleines mains sans en ressentir autre incommodite' quun 

 leger chatouillementr — I do not think those of Pernambuco 

 would be found to be quite so harmless. 

 VOL. II. JI 



