spent the greater part of two hours in wailing, "Ont daykumboa."

[Illustration: Music: Little Birdie.]

A SCARECROW NO SCARECROW.

An umbrella for a scarecrow
Was in a corn field placed,
And with loud caws the sly old crows
Around it gravely paced;
When suddenly a shower fell,
And under it they went,
And staid until the rain had ceased,
As in a little tent.
Then said they, as they all trooped out,
"_That_ man's a jolly feller;
Not only plants the corn for us,
But lends us his umbreller!"

* * * * *

=The Paradise of Insects.=--None but those who have travelled on the
Upper Amazons can have any idea of the number and voracity of the insect
torments which work their wicked will on the bodies of the unfortunates
exposed to their attacks. The "sancudos," or small sand-flies, form by
far the most important section. In the villages, round which the forest
is cleared away for some distance, the sancudos are generally pretty
quiet during the day, except where darkness prevails: there they are
ever busy, and are a perfect plague. The triumphant note of a sancudo
which has made his way under your curtains is more annoying than even
his bite; and should you have been careless in getting into bed, and
been accompanied by two or three of these blood-suckers, we will defy
you to sleep until you have exterminated them.

In the forest and on the river the sancudos are always busy. Men
sometimes get into the vessel's tops, and there cover themselves with
sacks, notwithstanding the heat, rather than remain below exposed to
their attacks. Fortunately they can not stand a current of air, and so
when under way the vessel is comparatively free from them, but when at
anchor these pests are something awful. To get rid of them is next to
impossible. Creosote will keep them off, but the remedy is as bad as the
disease. Whitewash will drive them away, but when dry its power ceases;
and the only thing to do is either to cover all exposed parts of the
body with black pigment _a la mode Indienne_, or else to "grin and bear
it."

Scarcely less troublesome than the sancudos are the mosquitoes, although
they have the negative merit of biting only by day. They are minute
creatures, not much larger than a pin's head; they prefer the backs of
the hands to any other spot for their attacks. But, unlike the sancudo,
which, when undisturbed, gorges himself until una