RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 69 



a perfect cloud of wasps, and got horribly stung. 

 When we had got away from the foot of the tree, 

 and had beaten off the wasps that followed him, I 

 saw that his face and his naked back and shoulders 

 were covered with knobs from the stings. He 

 staggered and looked wild, and was evidently in 

 great pain. I took out my flask, and was about to 

 pour some spirit into my hand to bathe the stings, 

 when he said, " If it's all the same to you, patron, 

 I'd rather have it inside." I gave him the flask, 

 and he took a good pull. No doubt he preferred 

 the remedy that way because he liked the taste of 

 it. Anyhow, it was the right way, and he went on 

 through a long hard day without a word or gesture 

 of disquiet, and when we reached home declared 

 himself quite well again. 



I have been stung by wasps I suppose hundreds 

 of times once very badly, having above twenty 

 stings in my head and face alone. Yet I have 

 always admired their beauty, ingenuity, and heroic 

 ferocity ; and I have twice in my life lived on good 

 terms with them for months together. At 

 Carlos I had several little colonies of the large 

 brown house-wasps, which hung their nests- 

 inverted goblet-glasses from the rafters, and out- 

 side the house under the eaves. They never once 

 stung me, not even when they had so multipl 

 to become troublesome, and 1 poked down ami 

 swept out several of their nests. They seemed t<> 

 recognise me as the real owner of the house;, where 

 they existed only on sufferance, 

 who should imprudently linger in the 

 would be sure to be attacked by them, 

 in his Expedition to Surinam, gives 



