SOUTH AMERICA. 
1C5 
as in Europe, there is always a little temple aedi- third 
catecl to the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner had-- 
chiefly consisted of crabs, dressed in rich and different 
ways. Paumaron is famous for crabs, and strangers 
who go thither consider them the greatest luxury. 
The Scotch gentleman made a very capital dinner on 
crabs; but this change of diet was productive of un¬ 
pleasant circumstances: he awoke in the night in 
that state in which Virgil describes Cseleno to have 
been, viz. “faedissima ventris proluvies.” Up he 
got, to verify the remark, 
u Serius aut citius, sedem properamus ad unam.” 
Now, unluckily for himself, and the nocturnal 
tranquillity of the planter’s house, just at that unfor¬ 
tunate hour, the coushie ants were passing across the 
seat of Cloacina’s temple ; he had never dreamed of 
this ; and so, turning his face to the door, he placed 
himself in the usual situation which the votaries of 
the goddess generally take. Had a lighted match 
dropped upon a pound of gunpowder, as he after¬ 
wards remarked, it could not have caused a greater 
recoil. Up he jumped, and forced his way out, 
roaring for help and for a light, for he was worried 
alive by ten thousand devils. The fact is, he had 
sat down upon an intervening body of coushie ants. 
Many of those which escaped being crushed to death, 
turned again; and, in revenge, stung the uninten¬ 
tional intruder most severely. The watchman had 
fallen asleep, and it was some time before a light 
could be procured, the fire having gone out; in the 
mean time, the poor gentleman was suffering an 
