they did; I walked about in a garb striking for its
simplicity; and I reposed on a community of couches; besides doing many
other things in conformity with their peculiar habits; but the farthest I
ever went in the way of conformity, was on several occasions to regale
myself with raw fish. These being remarkably tender, and quite small, the
undertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a few trials I
positively began to relish them: however, I subjected them to a slight
operation with my knife previously to making my repast.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Natural history of the valley--Golden lizards--Tameness of the
birds--Mosquitoes--Flies--Dogs--A solitary cat--The climate--The
cocoa-nut tree--Singular modes of climbing it--An agile young
chief--Fearlessness of the children--Too-too and the cocoa-nut
tree--The birds of the valley.

There were some curious-looking dogs in the valley. Dogs!--big, hairless
rats rather; all with smooth, shining, speckled hides--fat sides, and very
disagreeable faces. Whence could they have come? That they were not the
indigenous production of the region, I am firmly convinced. Indeed, they
seemed aware of their being interlopers, looking fairly ashamed, and
always trying to hide themselves in some dark corner. It was plain enough
they did not feel at home in the vale--that they wished themselves well out
of it, and back to the ugly country from which they must have come.

Scurvy curs! they were my abhorrence; I should have liked nothing better
than to have been the death of every one of them. In fact, on one
occasion, I intimated the propriety of a canine crusade to Mehevi but the
benevolent king would not consent to it. He heard me very patiently; but
when I had finished, shook his head, and told me in confidence, that they
were "taboo."

As for the animal that made the fortune of my lord mayor Whittington, I
shall never forget the day that I was lying in the house about noon,
everybody else being fast asleep; and happening to raise my eyes, met
those of a big black spectral cat, which sat erect in the doorway, looking
at me with its frightful goggling green orbs, like one of those monstrous
imps that tormented some of the olden saints! I am one of those
unfortunate persons, to whom the sight of these animals is at any time an
insufferable annoyance.

Thus constitutionally averse to cats in