THE VULTUttE. 



23 



by the putrid exhalations which arise from it, when 

 it has arrived at that state of decomposition which 

 renders it fit, and no doubt delicious, food for this 

 interesting tribe of birds. While I was standing 

 near the negro, I could see here and there a Vultur 

 Aura sweeping majestically through the ethereal 

 expanse, in alternate rises and falls, as these birds 

 are wont to do when in search of carrion : but they 

 showed no inclination to come and perch on the 

 trees near the prostrate body of this poor unknown 

 sable son of Africa. 



The terrible pestilence which visited Malaga at 

 the beginning of the present century, swept off thou- 

 sands upon thousands in the short space of four 

 months. The victims were buried by the convicts. 

 So great was the daily havoc of death, that no pri- 

 vate burials could be allowed ; and many a corpse 

 lay exposed in the open air, till the dead carts made 

 their rounds at nightfall to take them away to their 

 last resting-place, which was a large pit, prepared for 

 them by the convicts in the daytime. During this 

 long-continued scene of woe and sorrow, which I 

 saw and felt, I could never learn that the vultures 

 preyed upon the dead bodies which had not had time 

 enough to putrefy. But when the wind blew in 

 from the Mediterranean, and washed ashore the 

 corrupted bodies of those who had died of the pes- 

 tilence, and had been thrown overboard from the 

 shipping, then indeed, de montibus adsunt Har- 

 pyise," then it was that the vultures came from the 

 neighbouring hills to satisfy their hunger ; then, one 

 c 4 



