now move into life, and serpents, untwining their green and glittering
folds, and slowly bending their crested heads around, seem proudly
conscious of a voluptuous existence; troops of monkeys leap from tree to
tree; panthers start forward, and alarmed, not alarming, instantly
vanish; a herd of milk-white elephants tramples over the back-ground of
the scene; and instead of gloomy owls and noxious beetles, to hail the
long-enduring twilight, from the bell of every opening flower beautiful
birds, radiant with every rainbow tint, rush with a long and living
melody into the cool air.

The twilight in this island is not that transient moment of unearthly
bliss, which, in our less favoured regions, always leaves us so
thoughtful and so sad; on the contrary, it lasts many hours, and
consequently the Islanders are neither moody nor sorrowful. As they
sleep during the day, four or five hours of 'tipsy dance and revelry'
are exercise and not fatigue. At length, even in this delightful
region, the rosy tint fades into purple, and the purple into blue; the
white moon gleams, and at length glitters; and the invisible stars first
creep into light, and then blaze into radiancy. But no hateful dews
discolour their loveliness! and so clear is the air, that instead of the
false appearance of a studded vault, the celestial bodies may be seen
floating in aether, at various distances and of various tints. Ere the
showery fire-flies have ceased to shine, and the blue lights to play
about the tremulous horizon, amid the voices of a thousand birds, the
dancers solace themselves with the rarest fruits, the most delicate
fish, and the most delicious wines; but flesh they love not. They are
an innocent and a happy, though a voluptuous and ignorant race. They
have no manufactures, no commerce, no agriculture, and no
printing-presses; but for their slight clothing they wear the bright
skins of serpents; for corn, Nature gives them the bread-fruit; and for