259 



of the whole poultry yard. Then, lest their chat- 

 tering should betray her disobedience, she thought 

 it best not to return into the hut, and, accordingly, 

 set forward on her return home ; but she had not 

 yet reached the mahogany tree, when curiosity in- 

 duced her to break one of the eggs. To her 

 infinite disappointment it proved to be empty; 

 and she soon found cause to wish that the second 

 had been empty too ; for, on her dashing it against 

 the ground, out came an enormous yellow snake, 

 which flew at her with dreadful hissings. Away 

 ran the girl ; a fallen bamboo lay in her path ; she 

 stumbled over it, and fell. In her fall the third 

 egg was broken ; and the old woman without the 

 head immediately popping out of it, told her, that if 

 she had treated her as civilly, and had adhered as 

 closely to the truth as her cousin had done, she 

 would have obtained the same good fortune ; but 

 that as she had shown her nothing but rudeness, and 

 told her nothing but lies, she must be contented to 

 carry nothing home but the empty egg-shells. The 

 old woman then jumped upon the yellow snake, 

 galloped away with incredible speed, and never 

 showed her red docker in that part of the island 

 any more." 



April 8. 



At breakfast the captain was explaining to me 

 the dangerous consequences of breaking the wheel- 

 rope : two hours afterwards the wheel-rope broke, 

 and round swung the vessel. However, as the ac- 



s V Z 



