native to the Guiana forests. This swart nut--shaped almost
like a clam-shell, and halving in the same way along its sharp
edges--encloses something almost incredible. There is a pale
envelope about the kernel; remove it, and you find between your
fingers a little viper, triangular-headed, coiled thrice upon
itself, perfect in every detail of form from head to tail. Was
this marvellous mockery evolved for a protective end? It is no
eccentricity: in every nut the serpent-kernel lies coiled the
same.

... Yet in spite of a hundred such novel impressions, what a
delight it is to turn again cityward through the avenues of
palms, and to feel once more the sensation of being watched,
without love or hate, by all those lithe, tall, silent, gracious
shapes!



XXVII.


Hindoos; coolies; men, women, and children-standing, walking,
or sitting in the sun, under the shadowing of the palms. Men
squatting, with hands clasped over their black knees, are
watching us from under their white turbans-very steadily, with a
slight scowl. All these Indian faces have the same set, stern
expression, the same knitting of the brows; and the keen gaze is
not altogether pleasant. It borders upon hostility; it is the
look of measurement--measurement physical and moral. In the
mighty swarming of India these have learned the full meaning and