206 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



of beans and rice which, together with some beef, the 

 colonel left with them. They feasted most of the night. 

 Their houses contained their hammocks, baskets, and 

 other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one 

 house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and fa- 

 miliar, but by no means friendly, with strangers. There 

 are wild Nhambiquaras in the neighborhood, and recently 

 several of these had menaced the two ferrymen with an 

 attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen had 

 driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they 

 expected and received the colonel's praise for their self- 

 restraint; for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade 

 the Indians to stop their blood feuds. The rifles were 

 short and light Winchester carbines, of the kind so uni- 

 versally used by the rubber-gatherers and other adventur- 

 ous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There 

 were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by 

 the way. 



We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was 

 impossible to make headway by swimming against the rac- 

 ing current. There were few mosquitoes. On the other 

 hand, various kinds of piums were a little too abundant; 

 they vary from things like small gnats to things like black 

 flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly 

 be frightened away when they light on the hands or face; 

 but they never bite, and merely cause a slight tickling 

 as they crawl over the skin. There were some big bees, 

 however, which, although they crawled about harmlessly 

 after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely 

 if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a 

 serious bother, but there were occasional hours when they 



