154 



MEN AND BEASTS. 



foaming waters, gazed upon us, snorted at us, and 

 sank back surlily and suspiciously into the depths 

 of his home. Crocodiles, terrified by the splash 

 of paddles, waddled down, as dowagers might, 

 with their horrid claws dinting the slimy bank, 

 and lay upon the water like yellow-brown tree- 

 trunks, measuring us with small malignant green 

 eyes, deep set under w^arty brows. Monkeys 

 rustled the tall trees, here peeping with curiosity 

 almost human, there darting away in fear amidst 

 the wondrous frondage and foliage ; now gambol- 

 ling and frolicking up and down the corkscrew- 

 like bush-ropes, nature's cables, shrouds, and 

 stays ; then disappearing amidst the gloom of vir- 

 gin forest. Below, their younger brethren, the 

 jungle men and women — 



' So withered and so wild in their attire, 

 That look not like th' inhabitants o' tli' earth, 

 And yet are on't ' — 



planted their shoulder-cloths, their rude crates, 

 and their coarse weirs upon the muddy inlets 

 where fish abounded. The sky was sparkling 

 blue, the water was bluer, and over both spread 

 the thinnest blue haze, tempering raw tones of 

 colour to 'absolute beauty. On both sides of the 

 slmnking stream a dense curtain of many-tinted 

 vegetation, 



