There are many other birds in various parts of the world especially in Australia, which make their nests on exactly the same principle, though in slightly varied forms. Also, in the insect world, there are innumerable examples of the natural Hammock, the most common of which is that made by the caterpillars of the Tiger-moth, and in which it slings itself while undergoing its changes from the chrysalis to the perfect state. It is made of silken threads, interwoven so slightly that the chrysalis can be seen through them, and so exactly like the Hammock of the South American Indian that if a drawing were made and enlarged, one might easily be taken for the other. * * * * * NOW we come to the Mat Bed, which is so much used in the warmer parts of the world, where the earth is dry, and the air so warm that nothing is required but the slightest possible protection from the soil. In inland places, such as Southern Africa, the bed is made of long grass-stems laid side by side, and sewn together with a sort of twine. One of these beds in my collection is some three feet wide by seven feet long, and can be rolled up into a cylinder so compact and light that even a child could carry it. [Illustration: ROBBER-CRAB.] [Illustration: COCOA-NUT MAT.] Of course, when the Kafirs are on a journey, the women have to carry the beds, together with the heavy wooden pillows and other necessaries, the men carrying nothing but their weapons. I have a pair of figures made by a native artist, representing a Kafir man and woman on a journey, the woman staggering under her heavy burdens, the bed being included, and the man stepping lightly along, with nothing but his spears and knobkerries. * * * * * ON the sea-coasts, however, where the cocoa-nut palm grows, the fibre of the husk is the principal material for bedding. These fibres lie so parallel to each other on the surface of the cocoa-nut, that they are easily stripped off, fastened together, and formed into mats of any shape or thickness. One of these mats is shown on the right hand of the illustration, and the reader will see how simple is its manufacture. Owing to the ease with which it is made into a fabric, the cocoa-nut fibre was in great use as armour before the bullet set all armour at defiance. It will be remembered that when Captain Cook was murdered, he committed the mistake of firing a charge of small shot instead of a bullet, and the fact that the cocoa-nut mat carried by the man at whom he fired resisted the shot, encouraged the natives to attack and murder him. * * * * * EVEN the cocoa-nut mat has its precursor in Nature. There is a certain Crab inhabiting the cocoa-nut bearing parts of the world, which not only makes itself a bed from the fibre, but supplies it to mankind.