470 



A NATURALIST'S WANDEltlNQS 



forbidding cAves, and travei-sed by chasms many feet in 

 ividtli and to the sight reacliitig do>m to mifathonmble depths. 

 In front of one of these caves an a.!jed fig-tree, adding its 

 awesome effect, had dropped its tendrils and wound its routs 

 into every crevice in weird and grUesome shapes. The place 

 was just such as would overawe the timid and snperstitions 

 native mind, and I wjis uot surprised to see that tJiere were 

 nearly as many LuU houses as dwellings, and that before the 

 door of the caves st^od a LuU stone on which to propitiat^e 

 the spirits tliat haunted their f^loomy recesses. The whole 

 summit of the momitaia looked aa if it had been shattered 

 to its very foundation by some gigantic convulsion of nature. 

 The natives told me that earthquakes, which_were the res^t 

 of Jlaromak nodding and lettmg the world slide "oE^the 

 straight for a moment, W4?re frequent and severe. 



Here I madt; some most curious, interesting, and very rare 

 additions to my herbiiriimi ; the most attractive an opidendric 

 orchid, and a beautiful sjiecies of passion-flower whieJi overran 

 with its bright star-like blossoms the spiny vegetation I have 

 mentioned; while the" rarest was a curious aroid, Renmmtia 

 vivijhira growing in soilless cracks in the caleareons rocks, 

 whose seeds, as its name implies, germmato in thi-ir capsules 

 before dropping ; and the most annoying a shrul) with intensely 

 prickly foliage^ called by the people there Siltitik—o, pknt 

 much dretidcd by them ; for when my face was stung badly, 

 by having come in contact with its leaves, they exhibited 

 great concern especially for my eyes, and conducted me away 

 I'rom it. I tried by ruljbing several succulent leaves on the 

 affected part to allay the severe smarting, till a little urelrin 

 who was following me, after shaking his head in the most 

 significant way to say that they were no goodj proceeded to 

 pimnd down some of the calcareous rock into a fine [wwder, 

 which he brought to me to rub into the wounds. The applica- 

 tion was, if not curative, very cot ding, but tho pain did not 

 subside for a long time. After I had left the place I leumed 

 that it is the juice from this tree that is applied to the tips of 

 their arrows as a jxiison. Among the few butterflies I obtained 

 I netted, with a heart palpitating with pleasure, the lovfly 

 Cethmia Immrhiif whose azure wings had tantalised me by flying 

 along the front of the inac^'essible clifl's of the river bed below. 



