A IIome-Maüe Pack op Caiujs. 
95 
a most relaxing influence upon mind and body, and as a matter of fact 
to such an extent that we often became a burden to ourselves. A few 
hours' continuous labour usually rendered us 'quite unfit for further 
effort. The day was geneually brought to a close by writing up the 
diary, or with the inspecling and looking after the collections, but oh! 
those long, long evenings, when we could not sleep at all because every 
moment our rest would be ])roken by the continual pinching and nipping, 
twitching and sticking, cutting and biting of our innumerable tor- 
mentors, while, as to the newspapers— well, they had already been read 
three or four times through. The officers of the Fort who were troubled 
with the same worries, just as vainly sought a remedy in our company as 
we (lid in theirs. Yes, it is indeed a monotonously slow game, a tropical 
wnnter like this when even the most inventive spirit has to recognise itself 
bankrupt. The intense longing for the pleasant -w^inter days of Home 
with their clear Idue sky and their white covering of snow was 
accordingly awakened with redoubled energy. 
2.10. It was while we were sitting together one evening, grumbling 
and growling as usual, that Bingham all of a sudden wonderingly 
enquired why we didn't ti-y and shorten these dull evenings with a game of 
whist? We gladly seized on the idea, but Avhere to get the cards from? 
Mr. Goodall soon knew how to put the suggestion into practice. His 
sketching-portfolio still contained a quantity of Bristol paper, and under 
his dexterous hand it did not take long to produce two packs of cards, 
the faces of which represented the members of the expedition and of the 
Indians befriending us, the latter I'ecognisable by some peculiarity* or 
other. The officers at the Fort would come over to us at Pirara for a 
week : the following week we went over to them. Rembrandt could have 
found no worthier subject for his ])rush than the interior of one of our 
houses on such an evening's entertainment. The little lamp, scantily 
fed on turtle-fat or palm-oil and giving a bluish flame, could hardly light 
up the rough table which, in addition to the players almost returned to 
a state of nature, was surrounded by a number of Indians. These stared 
in astonishment at our movements and methods, proceedings so inex- 
plicable to them, — throwing down the coloured cards and gathering 
them up again — until they linally shook their heads and betook them- 
selves to a distance, or when they saw the player in the lead with a 
despairing woe begone look suddenly throw his cards on the table and 
convulsively smack some portion or other of his tortured anatomy to kill 
the blood-sucking moscpiitocs that were making him forget all about 
honours and over-trum])ing. But still more interesting must the 
moment have been to the apathetic on-lookers, when the terrifying shout 
of "Snake" was heard. As with a word of comnuind, the whole company 
then stood upon the table, the chairs, or uiK)n the boxes close by, whence 
they directed the ]»lan of campaign for the destruction of the monster 
that was winding itself along the ground : in short, we experienced scenes 
where the confusion or fright momentarily caused by some intruder or 
other filled our premises — subsc<pu'nt to its removal — with the most 
immoderate laughter. 
