, 1875-12-15

AneTS y announcer plant, however, that brings
much more serious trouble upon any house
near to which it grows, and this is of quick
growth. It is the plant which a Barbediau
teous of all flowers. I mean the Potnciauo pul.
cherrinG, or "pride of Barbados" or /" flower.
ing fence" as it is also called. In st. Croix,
where 1t goes by the unpoetical name I" doodle.
doo'" it is never used as a hedge. Exceeding
beautiful as it is, it only springs up here and
there, without cultivation or care. People are
unwilling to run the risk of the unknown
troubles-and all the more alarming because
unknown which will follow the planting
of it. ~.
That other splendid and most snowy tree,
the Po'"c'anG regsG-the "Aamboyant" or
" fametree," sometimes. called in st. Croix,
"glant doodledoo"-is not hurtful 10 itself, but
It ls remarkable as a tree under which jumbies
like to sit. An old man who transplanted a
large one to my rectOry actually charged more
for his work on account Of the danger that he
said attended the meddling with such a
jumby tree"
AS regards animals, guinea-pigs may be
mentioned as specially unlucky, at least in st.
CrOix. There are families there, among those
from whom one would not expect such things,
whose children would on no account be
allowed to keep these pretty little pets. What
precisely is the harm they do is not stated.
All you can get out of any one is, ."0h, they
always bring trouble to a house; they're very
unluoky.
Birds have apparently more i'll luck attending
them than animals. For any bird whatever %
ny into your house and over your head is at
least indicative of some i'll tidings you are TO
hear before long. Birds have always had,
ever since SOlomon's days, a propensity to
carry news. He warns US not to curse the
king or the rich, lest ""a. bird Of the air shall
carry the voice, and that which hath wings
shall tell the matt.g'' And most Of US can
remember some " little bird" being iokingly
givefto- US by our grandmothers or some old
friend of our childhood as the authority for
some piece of g ii,
But the only news that birds in the West
Indies carry is i'll news, it would seem. 1t is
reserved for the black bee," or carpenter
bee, so called because be borea holes in
wood, to come buzxing with any kind Of news
ne can catch, good or bad. He is a true COS
sip. Only give him a piece of news, and away
he flies, buzzing in the ear of this Que and the
other One, telling 1t to every one he meets,
whether they wish to hear it or not. Your
Efforts to get rid of him are as vain as those
of Horace when victimized by: his friends
loquacity. "Nil agis, usque tenebo, perse-
quar-" is the spirit in which the fellow acts.
The negro belief about him is that when be
comes buzzing UP to you, you are sure to hear
some news before long. He can scarcely, how
ever, be considered abundant in any, West In
dian island. There is, to say the truth, such a
plentiful supply of human gossips, male and
female, in these islands, that there is hardly
room for al insect with that propensity.
The "black and yellow oreeper' of st.
Croix, Certhiola .Raye0la, sometimes called
"yellow-breast," is apt to betoken sickness
or trouble if he frequent a house. But be only
does this in St. Croix, not having bad name
in other places, except among planters. He
certainly has the reputation of stealing sugar.
whence another name of his, the "sugar bird"
Even this is, however, questionable. Perhaps
he much rather goes after the flies that attack
the sugar than after the sugar itself.
The gentle little "grouud dove" or turtle
dove" as they call him in Barbados, CAamQ-
pct'd trocAila, is, on the other hand, an inno-
cent bird, in St. Croix, whereas his going on
the top Of A>house is a sure sign of death to
one of the inmates, in Barbados. The bird
which is the great prophet of evils' is
the "black WITCH" or "old WITCH"
Crotophaga AMI.
Every where in the West Indies a sdpersti-
ton prevails among servants in reference to
spiders. Not that the insect is unlucky, bat
quite the contrary. The mischief is in killing
him., The house-maid may sweep down any
cobwebs, destroy ruthlessly any web, however
old it be, but the spinner Of the web she will
Ill " So -