20 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



he used to say. Of great stature and prodigious muscle, 

 utterly fearless, never unprepared, happen what might, he 

 passed forty years in such wandering as I have outlined, and 

 never had occasion to strike a blow. Several times he found 

 himself between contending factions, the armed mobs of 

 Spanish America, and lost everything ; many times was he 

 robbed, but never, I believe, assaulted. Nerve and humour 

 protected him. As for the wild Indians, I fancy that they 

 were overawed by his imposing appearance ; and especially 

 by an iron hook which occupied the place of his left hand, 

 smashed by an accident. 



This system of travelling at leisure from settlement to 

 settlement enabled him to pick up a few necessary words of 

 each language, and to give warning of his approach to the 

 next tribe. The Pintados welcomed him in a quiet fashion 

 — that is, the chiefs did not object when he repaired an 

 empty hut and took possession. It was at the end of a long 

 ' street,' parallel to the river. The rude dwellings were not 

 scattered. Each stood opposite to its fellow across the way, 

 and Roezl noticed a large flat stone in the middle between 

 every pair. Towards nightfall the Indians trooped back 

 from their fields ; bat all the women and grown girls entered 

 at one end of the village, the men at the other. This was 

 curious. As they marched up, the former dispersed in huts 

 to the right hand, the latter to the left, each sex keeping to 

 its own side of the stones. After depositing their tools the 

 men came out and gathered silently around the strangers' 

 quarters — only very young children ran to and fro. After 

 a time the women reappeared with steaming calabashes, which 

 they bore half across the road, and set, each of them, on the 

 stone before her dwelling. Then they returned. Forthwith 

 the males strolled back, carried the supper to their respective 

 huts, and in due time replaced the empty calabash upon the 

 stone, whence the women removed it. 



