JAGUAR ADVENTURE

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I yelled back: 'I can't load again; I have not got my shot-bag, and the fire is out.'

Then I saw the waving of firebrands, and he with some Indians brought more firewood and my shot-bag. They made up a fine fire, and my brother-in-law went back to his bed, saying: Now blaze away till morning.'

I fired off both barrels, and then a few more shots. The girl and I lay down back to back, I with my gun in my arms, and soon talked ourselves to sleep.

Next day we went into the bush and saw the large tracks of the jaguar in the soft ground, and found that it had come within forty or fifty yards of the bush hut, but had there turned and gone off. The following night I prepared to camp out again with the girl, but I found two girls with her who told me to go away, as they were all coming out, which I was very glad to hear.

CHAPTER X.

Proceed up the river-Lazy voyage-Small village-Hospitality-Hunting warree-Carrying the game out-Feasting and stories of the huntSentimental reveries-A fishing journey.

ONE day two Indians in a small canoe came down from the next settlement, about a day's journey up the river, with a message from the headman, saying, 'Would I come up and "talk law"?' which meant, to discuss affairs generally, and adding that there was plenty of game in the Wakna track, and the women were dying to taste my hand.' This doubtful compliment really meant that I should undertake the risk and labour of a day's hunting that they might guzzle; but, reflecting that it would be necessary to get the headman's consent before I could engage and take any men from his village for the mahogany works, I consented to go with the messengers sent for me. Early in the morning I started off with the two Indians. The white fogs were just lifting off the river, and the sun broke them up into patches, which the wind rolled over the tops of the trees. joyous and happy; the lovely song of the

heard among the cutch grass on the banks.

All nature was banana bird was

I was much interested and amused to see small parties of the white-faced monkey eagerly seeking for spiders or other insects on the lofty bamboos which lined both sides of the river. Occasionally they thrust their arm up to the armpit into holes in the joints, to feel round inside for their prey,

pulling out handfuls of spiders, beetles, or grubs. Sometimes two would fall out, and utter loud screams, when immediately the rest would rush up to share the fight.

They always kept a sharp look-out on the canoe passing by, and now and then one would give the warning cry of danger, when all would fly together and gaze all round to see what was to be feared. Soon they got tired of searching the bamboos, and moved off into the forest which always grows behind the avenues of bamboos.

The breeze was very light, and the sun on the river was roasting hot. We kept as close to the banks as we could, to avoid the current and get some shade if possible. All is hushed in the middle of the day; the birds are asleep, or drowsily preening their feathers in the thickets; the noisy monkeys are now stretched idly on the branches, each cleaning the other's fur with nimble fingers and teeth. Only the lizard tribe and the river tortoises enjoy the noonday sun. Every now and then we see an alligator lazily crawling off the sandbanks at the sound of our poles. Hiccatees, or river turtle, lift their heads as we approach, then suddenly tumble off their snags into the water. A drowsy heat and brilliant sunshine seem to hold the forest in a lethargic embrace. The long reaches of the river glisten with an intolerable glare, which not even the brilliant green of the cutch grass and bamboos, nor the sombre green and deep. shadows of the lofty forest-wall, can alleviate. Nature seems to protest against the unseemly activity of man, who alone. breaks the rule of universal repose at mid-day. The ringing sound of innumerable crickets, or the drowsy, monotonous call of the trogons in some bushy tree, soothe the senses and gently urge repose. With a waha leaf in my hat, and my head wet and dripping with river water, I was just falling asleep, and so were the men, when one whispered to the other, 'Be quiet! I smell fire!'

From long experience in past days of rough usage and

.

plundering at the hands of the coast or Mosquito Indians, the river Indians have got into the habit of making cautious investigation before approaching another party. So we poled noiselessly along, till, peeping round a bushy fig-tree, we saw a man, his wife, and three children asleep on the sand under the shade of a sung-sung tree, and their pitpan made fast to its branches. We roused them with a shout, and, having joined them, made an exchange of provisions, receiving some fish and steeped maize in return for two fat monkeys.

With the declining sun we continued our journey. After a while we found the river banks getting higher, and occasionally composed of low rocky cliffs, overhung by the forest, and clothed with ferns and creepers. At last we came to a rapid, which it took all the strength and skill of the Indians to get through with their poles. Arrived, breathless, in smooth water at the top of the rapid, we heard the barking of dogs and crowing of cocks, and as we rounded a point. saw a village of five or six very long houses on a high bank 60 feet above the water, and on the crest of the bank all the people assembled to greet our arrival. The houses were, as usual, open at the sides, and string hammocks were suspended to the posts, while the sleeping apartments were stages of sticks covered with a sheet of thick bark, and erected at the height of the eaves, or, say, 7 feet above the floor, so that the only way of getting into bed was by climbing up a notched pole. The floor of the houses is only clay, beaten smooth; the furniture consists of hammocks, low stools of different sizes cut out of solid mahogany, threelegged iron pots, many calabashes, clay pots of their own make, and joints of bamboo to hold water.

The village is in a small clearing in the forest, but it is surrounded with alligator-pear, mammee-apple, and other fruit trees, and clusters of the prickly soopa palm, which yields bunches of a very nourishing fruit. Round the houses

were the usual flowers, with fruit of every hue, and many bushes of anatto, from which they make red paint.

I was soon installed at the end of one of the long houses, where the headman's two wives sat beside their respective fires, and as I reclined in my hammock I related a preliminary portion of the news to the men and boys. Soon a lot of little children came, each bringing a small complimentary portion of food from the fireside of their mothers. One sent a ripe plantain squeezed up in a calabash with water, another a small roasted catfish and boiled plantain wrapped in a green leaf. Others brought a morsel of deer meat or a piece of iguana, and so on. Of course it is expected that they shall also have a taste of my provisions, and when the two women had cooked our monkeys and iguana, they sent round portions to all the firesides of the village.

In the evening all the village assembled round a blazing fire to hear the news, and I had enough to do to satisfy their inquisitiveness. At last all retired; the headman's wives climbed to their elevated beds, and the man passed the babies up, except such as were old enough to sleep in hammocks below. Presently I heard two women singing their dirge. The elder sang well, and composed good words, but the younger, poor girl! was new to the business of grief. Her song was jerky and hesitating, and the words were nowhere. This was over the death of a man who died a few months before this time.

At dawn I was wakened by the dirge of the same two women, but they went to sleep again, and so did I; for I woke the second time to find the sun was up, and five or six men impatiently waiting to accompany me to the huntingground. They were armed with arrows only, and each carried a machete stuck in the waist-cloth, which was his only clothing, for they were without shoes, hats, or anything to protect their naked skins from thorns or stakes.