FANTASTIC FABLES. 
24a 
except those of the wings, are of a dark colour. These birds never fly 
but when the wind blows. We were informed," adds Pigafetta, " that 
they came from the earthly paradise, and were called Bolondinata ; * 
that is, 'birds of God.'" The Western mariners translated this term 
into ave de paraiso, whence comes our " birds of paradise." And, 
indeed, in the first garden, watered by the four immortal rivers, where 
the parents of the human race wandered in their days of innocence, 
fairer creatures could not have been seen than these bright and 
glowing birds. 
The specimens imported into Europe before the era of maritime 
discovery and enterprise began were always imperfect, — the legs 
having been removed in the process of embalming them. Hence arose 
some fantastic fables. It was asserted that they were aerial sylphs ; 
that they lived wholly in the air; that they performed all the functions 
of life while on the wing ; that they never rested except for a few 
moments, when they suspended themselves by their long tails to the 
branches of the trees. They were beings of a superior order, never 
requii'ing to tread the common earth, nourishing themselves in the 
ether, and quaffing only the pearly dews of the morning. It was in 
vain that Pigafetta declared they, like other birds, were duly provided 
with legs and feet; it was in vain that Clusius and other naturalists 
affirmed the same fact ; the popular imagination remained faithful to 
the old poetic fiction. 
The vegetation of the Aru woods, says Lord George Campbell, is 
exceedingly lovely. Palms and tree-ferns mingle with trees, the 
branches of which droop with ferns, orchids, and parasites, and are 
festooned with lianas, ratans, and creepers of every kind. Along the 
shore, where the waves lisp and murmur in delightful harmony, above 
the dense undergrowth of foliage rise tall casuarinas, mangroves, and 
pandanus palms. Both in the forest shadow and in the sunshine on 
the shore, the most gorgeous and varied butterflies, of all sizes, from 
huge ornithoptera to tiny blue and yellow gems, fly rapidly in the air 
or flutter through the pendent leaves. Scarlet dragon-flies dart to and 
* A corruption, perhaps, from Bulrungdewata, which is the Malay tor "birds of God." 
