402 CARIP[ AND THE BAY OF MARAJO. Cuap, V. 
dawn. My clothes were quite wet with the dew. The birds were astir, 
the cicadas had begun their music, and the Urania Leilus, a strange and 
beautiful tailed and gilded moth, whose habits are those of a butterfly, 
commenced to fly in flocks over the tree-tops. Raimundo exclaimed, 
“‘ Clareia o dia! ”—“‘ The day brightens!” The change was rapid: the 
sky in the east assumed suddenly the loveliest azure colour, across which 
streaks of thin white clouds were painted. It is at such moments as 
this when one feels how beautiful our earth truly is! The channel on 
whose waters our little boat was floating was about two hundred yards 
wide; others branched off right and left, surrounding the group of 
lonely islands which terminate the land of Carnapij6. The forest on all 
sides formed a lofty hedge without a break: below, it was fringed with 
mangrove bushes, whose small foliage contrasted with the large glossy 
leaves of the taller trees, or the feather and fan-shaped fronds of palms. 
Being now arrived at our destination, Raimundo turned up his 
trousers and shirt-sleeves, took his long hunting-knife, and leapt ashore 
with the dogs. He had to cut a gap in order to enter the forest. We 
expected to find Pacas and Cutias ; and the method adopted to secure 
them was this: at the present early hour they would be seen feeding on 
fallen fruits, but would quickly, on hearing a noise, betake themselves 
to their burrows : Raimundo was then to turn them out by means of the 
dogs, and Joaquim and I were to remain in the boat with our guns, 
ready to shoot all that came to the edge of the stream—the habit of 
both animals, when hard pressed, being to take to the water. We had 
not long to wait. The first arrival was a Paca, a reddish, nearly tailless 
Rodent, spotted with white on the sides, and intermediate in size and 
appearance between a hog and a hare. My first shot did not take 
effect; the animal dived into the water and did not reappear. A 
second was brought down by my companion as it was rambling about 
under the mangrove bushes. A Cutia next appeared: this is also a 
Rodent, about one-third the size of the Paca; it swims, but does not 
dive, and I was fortunate enough to shoot it. We obtained in this way 
two more Pacas and another Cutia. All the time the dogs were yelping 
in the forest. Shortly afterwards Raimundo made his appearance, and 
told us to paddle to the other side of the island. Arrived there, we 
landed and prepared for breakfast. It was a pretty spot—a clean, white, 
sandy beach beneath the shade of wide-spreading trees. Joaquim made 
a fire. He first scraped fine shavings from the midrib of a Bacaba 
palm-leaf; these he piled into a little heap in a dry place, and then 
struck a light in his bamboo tinder-box with a piece of an old file and a 
flint, the tinder being a felt-like soft substance manufactured by an ant 
(Polyrhachis bispinosus). By gentle blowing the shavings ignited, dry 
sticks were piled on them, and a good fire soon resulted. He then. 
singed and prepared the Cutia, finishing by running a spit through the 
body, and fixing one end in the ground in a slanting position over the 
fire. We had brought with us a bag of farinha and a cup containing 
a lemon, a dozen or two of fiery red peppers, and a few spoonfuls of 
salt. We breakfasted heartily when our Cutia was roasted, and washed 
the meal down with a calabash full of the pure water of the river. 
After breakfast the dogs found another Cutia, which was hidden in its 
