pillar and arch, placed at regular intervals, and that the least
departure from this order would destroy the effect. But Nature
produces her effects at random, and seems only to increase the
beautiful illusion by that infinite variety of decoration in
which she revels, binding tree to tree in a tangle of
anaconda-like lianas, and dwindling down from these huge cables
to airy webs and hair-like fibres that vibrate to the wind of the
passing insect's wing.

Thus in idleness, with such thoughts for company, I spent my
time, glad that no human being, savage or civilized, was with me.
It was better to be alone to listen to the monkeys that chattered
without offending; to watch them occupied with the unserious
business of their lives. With that luxuriant tropical nature,
its green clouds and illusive aerial spaces, full of mystery,
they harmonized well in language, appearance, and
motions--mountebank angels, living their fantastic lives far
above earth in a half-way heaven of their own.

I saw more monkeys on that morning than I usually saw in the
course of a week's rambling. And other animals were seen; I
particularly remember two accouries I startled, that after
rushing away a few yards stopped and stood peering back at me as
if not knowing whether to regard me as friend or enemy. Birds,
too, were strangely abundant; and altogether this struck me as
being the richest hunting-ground I had seen, and it astonished me
to think that the Indians of the village did not appear to visit
it.

On my return in the afternoon I gave an enthusiastic account of