86 
PUPA GATHERER. 
TliaumatojDsis, and, wlaat is rare in these southern 
latitudes, with the blue flowers of a little gentian. 
The as2>ect of the country, on the whole, suggests a 
favourable view of the people ; the scene presented 
is one of smiling j)lenty. The natives, evidently an 
industrious race, are everywhere busy, and may be 
seen tending their goats, weeding their crops, or 
threshing out the last year’s padi. While the women 
are carefully tending the cotton j^lants, the men are 
engaged in the more laborious occupation of turning 
the sod, and crushing the clods with their lieav}^ 
four-pronged hoes, the children at the same time 
gathering esculent leaves. 
Turning my eye in one direction, I perceived 
an individual with ba^et on arm, surveying the 
willows with inquiring eye. I was curious to kno\v 
on what he was intent, and observed his motions. By 
means of a little sickle at the end of a loner bamboo 
he ever and anon detached brown swinging cradles 
from the slender boughs, and deposited them in his 
basket. I learned from himself that he was a pupa- 
gatherer, and that those tiny mummy-like objects 
