MARTIN RATTLER. 115

were also many kinds of ferns, which sometimes
arched over their heads and completely shut out the
view, while some of them crept up the trees like
climbing-plants. Emerging from this, they came
upon a more open space, in the midst of which grew
a number of majestic trees.

“There are my cows!” said the hermit, pausing as
he spoke, and pointing towards a group of tall straight-
stemmed trees that were the noblest in appearance
they had yet seen. “Good cows they are,” he con-
tinued, going up to one and making a notch in the
bark with his axe; “they need no feeding or looking
after, yet, as you see, they are always ready to give
me cream.”

While he spoke, a thick white liquid flowed from
the notch in the bark into a cocoa-nut drinking-cup,
which the hermit always carried at his girdle. Ina
few minutes he presented his visitors with a draught
of what they declared was most excellent cream.

The masseranduba, or milk-tree, as it is called, is
indeed one of the most wonderful of all the extra-
ordinary trees in the forests of Brazil, and is one
among many instances of the bountiful manner in
Which God provides for the wants of his creatures.
No doubt this might with equal truth be said of all
the gifts that a beneficent Creator bestows upon man-