s and gloves, all things of that
sort, are also expensive, but not unreasonably so when the enormous cost
of carriage is taken into account. Everything comes by the only direct
line of communication with England, in the "Messageries Maritimes," which
is a swift but costly mode of transmission. Still, all actual necessaries
are cheap and plentiful in spite of the teeming population one sees
everywhere.

In our daily evening walk we cut off a corner through the bazaar, and it
is most amusing to see and hear the representatives of all the countries
of the East laughing, jangling and chatting in their own tongues, and
apparently all at once. Besides Indians from each presidency, there are
crowds of Chinese, Cingalese, Malabars, Malagask, superadded to the creole
population. They seem orderly enough, though perhaps the police reports
could tell a different tale. If only the daylight would last longer in
these latitudes, where exercise is only possible after sundown! However
early we set forth, the end of the walk is sure to be accomplished
stumblingly in profound darkness. Happily, there are no snakes or
poisonous reptiles of any sort, nor have I yet seen anything more
personally objectionable than a mosquito. I rather owe a grudge, though,
to a little insect called the mason-fly, which has a perfect passion for
running up mud huts (compared to its larger edifices on the walls and
ceiling) on my blotting-books and between the leaves of my pet volumes.
The white ants are the worst insect foe we have, and the stories I hear of
their performances would do credit to the Arabian Nights. I have already
learned to consider as pets the little soft brown lizards which emerge
from behind the picture-frames at night as soon as ever the lamps are lit.
They come out to catch the flies on the ceiling, and stalk their prey in
the cleverest and stealthiest fashion. Occasionally, however, they quarrel
with each other, and have terrific combats over head, with the invariable
result of a wriggling inch of tail dropping down on one's book or paper.
This cool weather is of course the time when one is freest from insect
visitors, and I have not yet seen any butterflies. A stray grasshopper,
with green wings folded exactly like a large leaf, or an inquisitive
mantis, blunders on to my writing-table occasionally, but not often enough
to be anything but welcome. As my sitting-room may be said, speaking
architecturally, to consist merely of a floor an