noon
I now lost my wits altogether , and roared murder , which brought a servant in with a light , and there I was , thumb and toe , in the clinch of a land-crab . I had been exceedingly struck with the beauty of the negro villages on the old settled estates , which are usually situated in the most picturesque spots , and I determined to visit the one which lay on a sunny bank full in view from my window , divided on two sides from the cane pieces by a precipitous ravine , and on the other two by a high logwood hedge , so like hawthorn , that I could scarcely tell the difference , even when close to it . At a distance it had the appearance of one entire orchard of fruit trees , where were mingled together the pyramidal orange , in fruit and in flower , the former in all its stages from green to dropping ripe , -- the citron , lemon , and lime-trees , the stately , glossy-leaved star-apple , the golden shaddock and grape-fruit , with their slender branches bending under their ponderous yellow fruit , -- the cashew , with its apple like those of the cities of the plain , fair to look at , but acrid to the taste , to which the far-famed nut is appended like a bud , -- the avocada , with its brobdignag pear , as large as a purser 's lantern , -- the bread-fruit , with a leaf , one of which would have covered Adam like a bishop 's apron , and a fruit for all the world in size and shape like a blackamoor 's head ; while for underwood you had the green , fresh , dew-spangled plantain , round which in the hottest day there is always a halo of coolness , -- the coco root , the yam and granadillo , with their long vines twining up the neighbouring trees and shrubs like hop tendrils , -- and peas and beans , in all their endless variety of blossom and of odour , from the Lima bean , with a stalk as thick as my arm , to the mouse pea , three inches high , -- the pineapple , literally growing in , and constituting , with its prickly leaves , part of the hedgerows , -- the custard-apple , like russet bags of cold pudding , -- the cocoa and coffee bushes , and the devil knows what all , that is delightful in nature besides ; while aloft , the tall graceful cocoa-nut , the majestic palm , and the gigantic wild cotton-tree , shot up here and there like minarets far above the rest , high into the blue heavens . I entered one of the narrow winding footpaths , where an immense variety of convolvuli crept along the penguin fences , disclosing their delicate flowers in the morning freshness , -LRB- all that class here shut shop at noon , -RRB- and passion flowers of all sizes , from a soup plate to a thumb ring . The huts were substantially thatched with palm leaves , and the walls woven with a basket-work of twigs , plastered over with clay , and whitewashed ; the floors were of baked clay , dry and comfortable . They all consisted of a hall and a sleeping-room off each side of it : in many of the former I noticed mahogany sideboards and chairs , and glass decanters , while a whole lot of African drums and flutes , and sometimes a good gun , hung from the rafters ; and it would have gladdened an Irishman 's heart to have seen the adjoining piggeries . Before one of the houses an old woman was taking care of a dozen black infants , little naked , glossy , black guinea pigs , with party coloured beads tied round their loins , each squatted like a little Indian pagod in the middle of a large wooden bowl , to keep it off the damp ground .