unconsciously arranged themselves, even in English, as poetry; those who
know Thomas Gowles best, best know how unlikely it is that he would
willingly dabble in the worldly art of verse-fashioning. Think of my
reflections with a painful, shameful, and, above all, _undeserved_ death
before me, while all the fragrant air was ringing with lascivious
merriment. My impression is that, as all the sins of the year were, in
their opinion, to be got rid of next day, and tossed into the sea with
the ashes of Bludger and myself, the natives had made up their minds--an
eligible opportunity now presenting itself--to be _as wicked as they knew
how_. Alas! though I have not dwelt on this painful aspect of their
character, they "knew how" only too well.

The sun rose at last, and flooded the island, when I perceived that, from
every side, crowds of revellers were pressing together to the place where
I lay in fetters. They had a wild, dissipated air, flowers were wreathed
and twisted in their wet and dewy locks, which floated on the morning
wind. Many of the young men were merely dressed--if "dressed" it could
be called--in the skins of leopards, panthers, bears, goats, and deer,
tossed over their shoulders. In their hands they all held wet, dripping
branches of fragrant trees, many of them tipped with pine cones, and
wreathed with tendrils of the vine. Others carried switches, of which I
divined the use only too clearly, and the women were waving over their
heads tame serpents, which writhed and wriggled hideously. It was an
awful spectacle!

I was dragged forth by these revellers; many of them were intoxicated,
and, in a moment--I blush even now to think of it--I was stripped naked!
Nothing was left to me but my hat and spectacles, which, for some
religious reason I presume, I was, fortunately, allowed to retain. Then
I was driven with blows, which hurt a great deal, into the market-place,