M. with the setting of the sun,
whose regular hours contrast pleasantly with his vagaries in the
northern temperates. And Hesperus brings wine as he did of old.
Drinking sets in seriously after dark, and is known by the
violent merriment of the men, and the no less violent quarrelling
and "flyting" of the sex which delights in the "harmony of
tongues." All then retire to their huts, and with chat and song,
and peals of uproarious laughter and abundant horseplay, such as
throwing minor articles at one another's heads, smoke and drink
till 11 P.M. The scene is "Dovercourt, all speakers and no
hearers." The night is still as the grave. and the mewing of a
cat, if there were one, would sound like a tiger's scream.
The mornings and evenings in these plantation-villages would be
delightful were it not for what the Brazilians call immundicies.
Sandflies always swarm in places where underwood and tall grasses
exclude the draughts, and the only remedy is clearing the land.
Thus at St. Isabel or Clarence, Fernando Po, where the land-wind
or the sea-breeze ever blows, the vicious little wretches are
hardly known; on the forested background of mountain they are
troublesome as at Nigerian Nufe.
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