326 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XI. 
with unwholesome swamps emitting malaria, forms in the dry season 
(and in the wet also) a most healthy country. How elaborate must be 
the natural processes of self-purification in these teeming waters ! 
On our fresh route we were obliged to cut our way through a long 
belt of bamboo underwood, and not being so careful of my steps as my 
companions, I trod repeatedly on the flinty thorns which had fallen 
from the bushes, finishing by becoming completely lame, one thorn 
having entered deeply the sole of my foot. I was obliged to be left 
behind; Lino, the Indian, remaining with me. The careful fellow 
cleaned my wounds with his saliva, placed pieces of isca (the felt-like 
substance manufactured by ants) on them to staunch the blood, and 
bound my feet with tough bast to serve as shoes, which he cut from the 
bark of a Mongtba tree. He went about his work in a very gentle way 
and with much skill, but was so sparing of speech that I could scarcely get 
answers to the questions I put to him. When he had done, I was able 
to limp about pretty nimbly. An Indian, when he performs a service 
of this kind, never thinks of a reward. I did not find so much dis- 
interestedness in negro slaves or half-castes. We had to wait two hours 
for the return of our companions ; during part of this time I was left 
quite alone, Lino having started off into the jungle after a peccary (a 
kind of wild hog) which had come near to where we sat, but on seeing 
us had given a grunt and bounded off into the thickets. At length our 
friends hove in sight, loaded with game, having shot twelve curassows 
and two cujubims (Penelope Pipile), a handsome black fowl with a white 
head, which is arboreal in its habits, like the rest of this group of 
gallinaceous birds inhabiting the South American forests. They had 
discovered a third pool containing plenty of turtles. Lino rejoined us 
at the same time, having missed the peccary, but in compensation shot 
a quandu, or porcupine. The mulatto boy had caught alive in the pool 
a most charming little water-fowl, a species of grebe. It was somewhat 
smaller than a pigeon, and had a pointed beak; its feet were furnished 
with many intricate folds or frills of skin instead of webs, and resembled 
very much those of the gecko lizards. The bird was kept as a pet in 
Jabuti’s house at Ega for a long time afterwards, where it became accus- 
tomed to swim about in a common hand-basin full of water, and was a 
great favourite with everybody. 
Weijnow retraced our steps towards the water-side, a weary walk of 
five or six miles, reaching our canoe by half-past five o’clock, or a little 
before sunset. It was considered by every one at Catud that we had 
had an unusually good day’s sport. I never knew any small party to 
take so much game in one day in these forests, over which animals are 
everywhere so widely and sparingly scattered. My companions were » 
greatly elated, and on approaching the encampment at Catua made a 
great commotion with their paddles to announce their successful return, 
singing in their loudest key one of the wild choruses of the Amazonian 
boatmen. 
The excavation of eggs and preparation of the oil being finished, we 
left Catud on the 3rd of November. Carepira, who was now attached 
to Cardozo’s party, had discovered another lake rich in turtles, about 
