A Stiff Orchid Yarn.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 7496, 20 April 1899, Page 4

A Stiff Orchid Yarn.

There died a few years ago a famou, orchid hunter named Foatermaa Bat before he died he told of a wonderful orchid which he said existed in Brazil, and which it had been the ambit-on of his life to secure. Landing on the coast of Brazil, a few degrees south of the Equator, he met a native chief, who to'd him of a "village of the demon Sowars" to the westward. Further Questions convinced him that the " demou Sowers " were orchids of the rarest and moat wonderful kino, so he decided t<> find this village at any coat. He had travelled through forests about six weeks, and was calculating that in a fortnight more he wottld be in the neighborhood of the " vil'age of the demon flowers," when, oqc afternoon, three of his forward guard* threw np their arms, and, with a cry, fell senseless to the ground. He had noticed a peculiar sicken* ins odor pervading the heavy, heated air, and quickly gave the order for ths other men to advance with caution, and drag bick the thres fallen ones from the spot where they lay. They did so, and returning, Laid that they had seen through the forest a little further oa the vast' or the demo-j flowers.* Accompanied only by his Portuguese interpreter, the orchid seeker started forward, their moat hi and noses mufHed as a safeguard against the awful odor- They managed to reach the spot where the three men had been s'ricken down, but could go no further. They could see, a hundred yard* ahead of them, a great miw of orchids, 'trees, undergrowth, and everything was loaded with them They wera of hues more brilliant than ha had ever dreamed of seeing. Bat, like a barrier, the irall of awful, sickening, overpowering odour rose between them. The mass of brilliant orchids might have been a mirage painted on the clouds, so far as reaching tfiem was concerned. The " village" was, perhaps, an acre in extent, and the two made a complete circuit of it, but everywhere arose the awful odour. This odonr was simply the periume of this vast mass of orchids. It is a curious fact that, though many orchids ore almost scentless, some of the handsomest ones have a most unbearable smell.