es and peeping out from amid
the foliage. On every side they come leaping joyously into the rushing
waters! There on a bluff--thirty, forty--ay! seventy feet high--a score
of native maidens are following each other in quick succession into the
limpid pools beneath. The moment before their flight through the air
they are poised upon the rocky pedestals, like the Medicean Venus. One
buoyant bound--the right arm is thrown aloft, knees brought up, and at
the instant of striking the water the head falls back, feet dashed
straight out--when they enter the pools with the velocity and clearness
of a javelin, shooting far away, just beneath the surface, like a
salmon.

Others, again, are diving in foaming torrents--plashing and
skirling--laughing, always laughing--plunging--swimming, half-revealing
their pretty forms before sinking again beneath the stream. Others,
still more daring and expert, go whirling through narrow passages,
thrown from side to side in the white waters--now completely hidden in
the cataracts--anon rising up in a recumbent attitude, when away they
are hurled over a cataract of twenty feet, emerging far below, with long
tresses streaming behind, and with graceful limbs cleaving the river,
like naught else in nature more charming than themselves.

It is a sight to make a lover forget his mistress, or a parson his
prayers. I know it would have been my case, had I been so fortunate as
to be either! Here I passed all my leisure hours, never tired of
beholding the beautiful panorama of life and water moving before me; and
there were others, on these occasions, who were wont to mingle bravely
in the sport--portly post-captains--husbandly lieutenants--mad-cap
reefers, of course--staid chaplains, too!--but all declared it was
pleasant, exceeding pleasant! although mingled with a few indifferent
remarks as to what the good missionaries might think of it.

Many of the _wyheenees_ have pretty faces, expressive black eyes, and
long, jet-black hair; then there are others, who make good imitations of
Blenheim spaniels in the visage; but nearly all have rounded, voluptuous
forms, perfectly natural and beautiful when young, with small hands and
feet: but such larks they are for fun and laughter! with a certain air
of sly demureness that renders them quite bewitching.

In the cool of the afternoons, a number of us in company with half a
dozen of these attractive naiads, would amuse ourselves sliding over a
gentle water-f