Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/133

 selves over the branches of their favorite trees, and alternately, with the utmost regularity and exactness, all at once give out their diamond spark or hide their light in darkness.

We were often serenaded at evening as we sat on our veranda by grasshoppers and crickets, while immense frogs would sing the bass in the grand chorus.

Beautiful, harmless little lizards, about a finger long, ready for their evening meal of mosquitoes and other insects, make their appearance on our walls and ceilings as soon as the lamps are lighted. I have often counted between twenty and thirty of them out at once. There is another lizard, almost as large as a young kitten, which also comes out on our walls for his evening meal, having hid through the day behind our mirrors or pictures. It is quite harmless, but with its loud outcry of ''tookaah! tookaah!'' it often startles new-comers from their midnight slumbers.

There are crocodiles in great numbers in the rivers and creeks of Siam. In one day's boat-*ride on the Upper Menam, Dr. House once counted one hundred and seventy, varying in size from three to fifteen feet.

Let me tell one or two true stories of crocodiles. When we were once visiting the mission-station at Petchaburee a crocodile seized a young girl twelve years old and devoured her, leaving only an arm in the boat. The governor, wishing