316 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



person of the girl he loved, would win him her favor, 

 and so on. Injured as it was, Mr. Agassiz was, neverthe- 

 less, very glad to have the specimen ; but he locked it up 

 carefully for the night, not knowing what other titbits 

 might be coveted by the superstitious inhabitants. 



December I'^th. — In the midst of the zoological work, 

 the collection of palms, which is now becoming very con- 

 siderable, is not forgotten. This morning we went into 

 the forest for the purpose of gathering young palms to 

 compare with the full-grown ones, already cut down and 

 put up for transportation. In these woods a thousand ob- 

 jects attract the eye, beside that which you especially 

 seek. How many times we stopped to wonder at some 

 lofty tree which was a world of various vegetation in 

 itself, parasites established in all its nooks and corners, 

 sipos hanging from its branches or twining themselves so 

 close against the bark that they often seem as if sculptured 

 on its trunk ; or paused to listen to the quick rustle of 

 the wind in palm-leaves fifty feet above our heads, not at 

 all like the slow, gathering rush of the wind in pine-trees 

 at home, but like rapidly running water. Through the 

 narrow path an immense butterfly, of that vivid blue 

 which excites our wonder in collections of Brazilian in- 

 sects, came sailing towards us. He alighted in our imme- 

 diate neighborhood, folding all his azure glories out of 

 sight, and looking, when still, like a great brown moth, 

 spotted with white. We crept softly nearer, but the first 

 leaf trodden under foot warned him, and he was off,, 

 again, dazzling us with the beauty of his wonderful col- 

 oring as he opened his wings and, bidding us a gay good- 

 by, vanished among the trees. The sailing motion of these 

 Morphos, though rapid, contrasts strikingly with the more 



