94? M. Auguste de St Hilaire’s Account of a Case of’ 
troublesome insects, and having no other shelter than my cart, 
when at last the weather cleared up, so as to allow me to under- 
take a long botanical excursion. I took two of my people with 
me, and having armed ourselves so as to be able to keep off the 
Jaguars, should they attack us, we traversed the surrounding 
fields, and the banks of the Uruguay. At the end of some 
hours, hunger brought us back to the banks of the brook, and 
we assuaged it with our ordinary fare, manihot flour and cow’s 
flesh, roasted and boiled. 
During a short walk which we had made the day before, we 
had observed a wasp’s nest suspended about a foot from the 
ground, from one of the branches of a small shrub. It was 
nearly oval, of the size of one’s head, of a grey colour, and of a 
chartaceous substance, like those of our European wasps. 
After dinner, the two men who had accompanied me upon 
my excursion, went to destroy the nest, and took away the ho- 
ney. We all three tasted it. The person who ate most of it 
was myself, and the quantity which I took could not have ex- 
ceeded two spoonfuls. I found it of an agreeable sweetness, 
and absolutely free of that pharmaceutic taste which the honey 
of our own bees so frequently has. 
Elowever, after eating it, I experienced a pain in the stomach, 
more disagreeable than acute. I lay down under my cart and 
slept. During my sleep, the objects dearest to me presented 
themselves to my imagination, and I awoke deeply penetrated 
with tender feelings. I rose up, but experienced such a degree 
of weakness as to be utterly unable to walk fifty paces. I 
therefore returned to my cart, and threw myself down upon the 
grass, when I immediately felt my face bathed in tears, which 
I attributed to a melancholy feeling produced by the dream 
which I had just had. Blushing at my weakness, I tried to 
laugh, but this laugh prolonged itself and became convulsive. 
However, I had still the power to issue some orders, and, in the 
mean time, my hunter arrived, being one of the Brazilians who 
had partaken with me of the honey, the baneful effects of which 
I now began to feel. 
This man, who was the offspring of a Mulatto and an Indian 
woman, combined, with a rare degree of intelligence, the most 
whimsical character, and all the levity which is peculiar to the 
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