In The More Shady Parts Butterflies Were Tolerably Abundant; The Most Common Being Species Of Euplaea And Danais, Which Frequent Gardens And Shrubberies, And Owing To Their Weak Flight Are Easily Captured.

A beautiful pale blue and black butterfly, which flutters along near the ground among the thickets, and settles occasionally

Upon flowers, was one of the most striking; and scarcely less so, was one with a rich orange band on a blackish ground - these both belong to the Pieridae, the group that contains our common white butterflies, although differing so much from them in appearance. Both were quite new to European naturalists. [The former has been named Eronia tritaea; the latter Tachyris ithonae.] Now and then I extended my walks some miles further, to the only patch of true forest I could find, accompanied by my two boys with guns and insect-net. We used to start early, taking our breakfast with us, and eating it wherever we could find shade and water. At such times my Macassar boys would put a minute fragment of rice and meat or fish on a leaf, and lay it on a stone or stump as an offering to the deity of the spot; for though nominal Mahometans the Macassar people retain many pagan superstitions, and are but lax in their religious observances. Pork, it is true, they hold in abhorrence, but will not refuse wine when offered them, and consume immense quantities of "sagueir," or palm-wine, which is about as intoxicating as ordinary beer or cider.

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