264 JUNGLE PEACE 



thought up one still less appropriate and called 

 him Nupee which is the three-toed sloth; and 

 in his quiet way he saw the humor of it, for a 

 more agile human being never lived. 



Nupee's face was unclouded, but his position 

 as hunter to our expedition had brought deci- 

 sions and responsibilities which he had not 

 known before. The simple life, the unruffled 

 existence in the little open benab, with hammock, 

 cassava field, and an occasional hunt, this was 

 of the past. A wife had come, slipping quietly 

 into his life, Indian-fashion; and now, before 

 the baby arrived, decisions had to be made. 

 Nupee longed for some store shoes and a suit 

 of black clothes. He had owned a big benab 

 which he himself had built; but a godmother, 

 like the cowbird in a warbler's nest, had gradu- 

 ally but firmly ousted him and had filled it with 

 diseased relatives, so that it was unpleasant to 

 visit. He now, to my knowledge, owned a 

 single shirt and a pair of short trousers. 



The shoes were achieved. I detected in him 

 qualities which I knew that I should find in some 

 one, as I do on every expedition, and I made 

 him perform some unnecessary labor and gave 

 him the shoes. But the clothes would cost five 



