These
Latter Are A Constant And Unceasing Source Of Torment And
Disgust, Whereas You May Live A Long Time Among Scorpions,
Spiders, And Centipedes, Ugly And Venomous Though They Are, And
Get No Harm From Them.
After living twelve years in the tropics,
I have never yet been bitten or stung by either.
The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my greatest
enemies, and kept me constantly on the watch. If my boys left the
bird they were skinning for an instant, it was sure to be carried
off. Everything eatable had to be hung up to the roof, to be out
of their reach. Ali had just finished skinning a fine King Bird
of Paradise one day, when he dropped the skin. Before he could
stoop to pick it up, one of this famished race had seized upon
it, and he only succeeded in rescuing it from its fangs after it
was torn to tatters. Two skins of the large Paradisea, which were
quite dry and ready to pack away, were incautiously left on my
table for the night, wrapped up in paper. The next morning they
were gone, and only a few scattered feathers indicated their
fate. My hanging shelf was out of their reach; but having
stupidly left a box which served as a step, a full-plumaged
Paradise bird was next morning missing; and a dog below the house
was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine
golden plumes all trampled in the mud.
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