190 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
to live in; some of us would die if we remained. Poor 
‘creatures, though’ daring and brave in the hunt, how 
afraid they are of death! Hence if a man dies in a vil- 
lage there is a great commotion, if another dies the vil- 
lage must be abandoned. 
A village is scarce built, often the plantations have 
not borne fruit for the first time, when they feel impelled 
to move. Then every thing is abandoned; they gather 
up what few stores of provisions they may have, and 
start off, often for great distances, to make, with tedious 
labor, a new settlement, which will be abandoned in 
turn after a few months. Sometimes, however, they re- 
main for two or even three months more in the same 
place. 
Many things contribute to their roving habits, but 
first of all I have said is their great fear of death. They 
dread to see a dead person. ‘Their sick, unless they have 
good and near friends, are often driven out of the village 
to die in loneliness in the forest. Those Bakalai have no 
burying-ground. After a man is dead the body is 
thrown anywhere in the forest, and no more attention is 
paid to it. 
The people of these tribes are very superstitious, and 
often after the death of a man several friendless creat- 
ures are accused and condemned in a breath, and mur- 
dered in cold blood. Afterward the village is broken 
up, the people set up again after their wanderings, and 
fix upon some lonely spot for a new plantation and a 
new home. 
What a life this must be, to be all the while vainly — 
fleeing from the dread face of death, as if such a thing 
were possible. What can stand still in the world? 
