31 



They are all very dark brown to black, all appear to be 

 stunted in grouth and all have very bad teeth* The cook 

 and more or less chief -of-staff is Clarice, who is unof- 

 ficially married to Ferdie. They have one or two chil- 

 dren and expect to get married legally some day when it 

 is convenient* Clarice makes very good scrambled eggs 

 and can boil vegetables in watery, otherwise the cuisine 

 is very limited* She has a younger sister, Rosa, who 

 cleans house and tries (?) to keep the place in shape. 

 Ferdie does the outside work which includes taking a few 

 cows to pasture each morning and bringing them back each 

 evening. And last, "The Boy 11 , a youngster of about 14 

 is attached to the menage to run errands etc. He makes 

 one trip a day to Newport for supplies. The weekly wages 

 of the four, respectively, in shillings are 5, 5, 3 and 2, 

 a total of fifteen shillings or about #3.70 a week. In 

 a place like Kingston the wage scale is a little higher 

 but still nothing for the whites to be proud of. 



After supper I went over the day f s catch and put that 

 away and then, as it was Hazel's birthday, I wrote her a 

 letter. Also one to Alan Stone. 



Feb. 19. Went out east of the house again and worked along 

 as far as the stone wall and bamboo thicket. Took more 

 of the bruchids and quite a series of good things. In 

 fact, the best collecting that I have had so far on the 

 island. Came back to the house to get more bottles of 

 alcohol and found the noon meal on the table. Clarice 

 is under the impression that I never come back until I 

 am hungry. Since it was ready, I ate. Then I went along 

 the road, sweeping the vegetation with poor results until 

 I met Dick, returning from Kingston. The car is now in 

 better condition than ever. Ruth stayed behind at the 

 Wooler's. Dick brought mail which was welcome. After un- 

 packing and reading the mail, we swept for more bruchids. 

 In the evening we put up the light on the porch and went 

 out for fireflies whenever we saw a flash. About 9.30 PM 

 a car pulled up at the front door. Marjorie Bovell and 

 Barbara Nurse got out and settled themselves in the two 

 rooms on the other side of the house. They watched us 

 collect for awhile and then went to bed. We had planned 

 to stay up until 3 AM to find out when the fireflies quit 

 flying but got so sleepy that we gave up just before one. 



Feb. 20. We started early for Dodd's Beach at Alligator Pond 

 Bay and the girls went to Mandeville to do some shopping. 

 As Paul Oman had asked me to look for a leafhopper living 

 on some beach plant, I swept everything in sight. Finally 

 I located a succulent Convolvulus on the beach away from 

 the salt water which had hoppers. They are probably not 

 what Paul wants but I took them on general principles. 



