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 hfe, — the unruffled 

 existence in the little open henab, 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 



