d arrows
into our hands, he signified that we should attend him. About a dozen
men were collected together, armed also with bows and arrows and spears.
On the ground were several baskets, and just as we were beginning to
march, some of the men lifted them up, and, without asking our leave,
strapped them on over our shoulders--an unmistakable hint that they
expected us to carry them. I, feeling indignant at this proceeding, let
the basket drop; on which the chief, casting an angry glance at me, gave
me a blow across the shoulder with his spear, which made me feel so
faint that I nearly fell to the ground. My companions wisely took the
hint, and, just as they were about to follow my example, re-secured the
baskets. I saw that there was no help for it; so, again lifting up
mine, I followed the party as fast as I could.

"You see, Massa Walter," observed Macco, "dem can make us do what dey
like, so no use cry out. `Grin and bear it,' as Potto Jumbo say to me
bery often."

As we passed through the forest we caught sight of numerous beautiful
birds flying among the trees, and countless numbers of lovely
butterflies flitting to and fro, and beetles crawling over the grass or
climbing the trunks of the trees. "What would not Mr Hooker give to be
here!" I could not help exclaiming.

I was going to put my foot on what I thought a large leaf, when I saw it
suddenly rise and spring forward. A little way on I saw another
creature--for a creature it was--of the same description; and, looking
at it more narrowly, I saw that it was an enormous grasshopper. The
wing covers, which were fully nine inches across, were of a fine green
colour, looking exactly like one of the large shining leaves which hung
from the trees above. The thorax was covered by a large triangular
sheath of a horny nature. Its serrated edges, and a somewhat wavy
hollow surface, with a line down the centre, made it also look very like
a leaf. At a guess, for I could not measure it, I should say that it
was between two and three inches long. The body was short, but the legs
were very long and strongly spined. It did not move very fast, so that
I could examine it easily. Though only at a very short distance, I
could not have distinguished it from the number of fallen leaves among
which it moved. Overhead were numbers of cockatoos, parrots, and other
birds of gay plumage, while now and then we caught sight of a
brush-turkey running along rapidly over t