464 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



painful, but he does not mind that ; the more excruciating the 

 torture the better the charm is working. Next day he goes forth 

 into the forest with renewed confidence, and is likely to be more 

 successful on that account alone. 



However, we are wandering away from our subject, and must 

 return to the traces of man's presence in the forest. If the little 

 spot on the sand hill has been recently abandoned, a dark patch of 

 humus shows where the henah or hut once stood, and this will be 

 covered with prickly solanums and other weeds, from which the 

 bare white sand in the neighborhood is entirely free. Sometimes 

 narrow paths into the forest or down to the creek can still be dis- 

 cerned by the careful observer, even after very long periods, as 

 the comparatively barren san^ reef does not obliterate every trace 

 so quickly as does the forest. It may be possible even to find the 

 way to what was once the cassava field now either an impene- 

 trable jungle or apparently virgin forest. It winds through and 

 under the trees, where a little light has been able to penetrate, 

 obstructed by young trees or crossed by bush-ropes, but fairly 

 conspicuous in the darker arcades. If you succeed in finding the 

 field, and it has been abandoned for only two or three years, the 

 jungle is impenetrable ; while after twenty, excejjt for the absence 

 of very large trees, it is unrecognizable. 



The plants we have mentioned as indicators of man's presence 

 at some former period are never found truly wild in the forest. 

 They have been we were going to say cultivated, but that would 

 be a misstatement grown by the Indians for ages, and are now 

 so thoroughly naturalized as to exist apart from his presence. If 

 the top of a pineapple is thrown down beside the path, it will be 

 sure to grow if there is sufficient light and the soil is porous. It 

 thus becomes an indicator of old tracks over the sand reefs, and 

 will sometimes enable the lost wanderer to retrace his footsteps. 

 Even the forest itself is intersected with tracks which often lead 

 the hunter astray, and give him great trouble to find the right 

 way on his return. Some are almost efl:aced, others conspicuous 

 for a short distance, and then blocked by some great tree. The 

 path is older than the tree, and yet can be discerned in certain 

 lights, although easily missed when looked for from a different 

 point. Even in returning by the same track the difference in di- 

 rection will often cause hesitation and doubt. 



The ground in the forest is undulating, and if we follow an 

 old track it is always obliterated in the gullies, but may be 

 recovered on the opposite slope. Creeks and small watercourses 

 cross it, or perhaps it stops entirely at the little stream where 

 formerly the Indian embarked in his canoe to reach the great 

 river. No canoe can pass now, and perhaps there is not in exist- 

 ence a single descendant of his tribe. Yet the track is visible. 



