the eccentricities. Some are very thin round disks, with long,
brilliant, wormy feelers in lieu of fins, flickering in all
directions like a moving pendent silver fringe;--others bristle
with spines;--others, serpent-bodied, are so speckled as to
resemble shapes of red polished granite. These are _moringues_.
The _balaou, couliou, macriau, lazard, tcha-tcha, bonnique_, and
_zorphi_ severally represent almost all possible tints of blue
and violet. The _souri_ is rose-color and yellow; the
_cirurgien_ is black, with yellow and red stripes; the _patate_,
black and yellow; the _gros-zié_ is vermilion; the _couronné_,
red and black. Their names are not less unfamiliar than their
shapes and tints;-the _aiguille-de-mer_, or sea-needle, long and
thin as a pencil;-the _Bon-Dié-manié-moin_ ("the Good-God
handled me"), which has something like finger-marks upon it;--
the _lambi_, a huge sea-snail;--the _pisquette_, the _laline_
(the Moon);--the _crapaud-de-mer_, or sea-toad, with a dangerous
dorsal fin;--the _vermeil_, the _jacquot_, the _chaponne_, and
fifty others.... As the sun gets higher, banana or balisier
leaves are laid over the fish.

Even more puzzling, perhaps, are the astonishing varieties of
green, yellow, and parti-colored vegetables,--and fruits of all
hues and forms,--out of which display you retain only a confused
general memory of sweet smells and luscious colors. But there
are some oddities which impress the recollection in a particular
way. One is a great cylindrical ivory-colored thing,--shaped
like an elephant's tusk, except that it is not curved: this is
the head of the cabbage-palm, or palmiste,--the brain of one of
the noblest trees in the tropics, which must be totally destroyed
to obtain it. Raw or cooked, it is eaten in a great variety of