164 



A NATUBAJJST'S WANDERINGS 



ill words liow anxiously I nursed that fledglmg fire ; liow 

 tenderly I held it in the hollow of my hands wliile my " boy '* 

 fanned it gently ; when it had grown a little, how we reared it 

 in a hat before transplanting it to the ground where it almost 

 expired from its cold touch, but the immen^ native nnibrella- 

 like bat shielded it till it was able to take care of itself. 

 All bands were then roused to gather wood, and we had at 

 length the satisfaction of feeling that the tigers would give us 

 a wide berth, and no elephant, unless a rogue, would tmmple 

 us down. Except a handliil of rice at tlie ford, neither myself 

 nor my meo had tasted food since dawn, and, jxjssessing a fire, 

 we were hopeful that we might cook also ; but, of course^ 

 the eatables were in the ctJier part of the baggage ! There 

 was nothing, therefore, to be done but to sit down with what 

 patience each could command and wait for moming. 



If things were the opposite of comfortable or bright for my 

 companions, I myself felt not a little comi)ensated by the 

 singular appeantnce of the forest, which was everywhere pbos- 

 pborescent. The stem of every tree blinked with a pale 

 greenish-whit^ bght, which undulated also across the surface 

 of the ground like moonlight coming and going behind the 

 clouds— from a minute threadlike fungus invisible in the day- 

 time to the unassisted eye; and here and there thick dumpy 

 mushrooms displayed a sharp clear dome of light, whose 

 intensity never varied or changefl till the break of day; long 

 phosphorescent cateri)illars and centipedes crawled out of 

 every corner, leaving a trail of light behind them, while fire- 

 flies darted about above like a lower firmament Trying to 

 conceive what were the respective benefits conferred by this 

 wonderful luminosity on tiiese so widely separated species 

 of living things, I dozed off to the lullaby of the weird forest 

 moan, the clanging " kang-kang" of the horned frogs, and 

 the not uumelodious waO of some night bird. 



Break of the next day showed us in what a miserable spot 

 we had encamped— on the edge of a rocky cliff, under the 

 drip of the trees, not below their Jjhade, We gathered together 

 the scattered articles of baggage, which had been depositeil 

 anywhere and everywhere. Near me, hanging by its feet 

 to a carrying-pole dead, drowned by the rain, I found the 

 fowl for which I groped about, listening for its cackle 



