274* JUNGLE PEACE 



but in the day he flaunted splashes of azure and 

 green on his scarlet body. 



At a turn in the trail we squatted and waited 

 for what the jungle might send of sight or 

 sound. And in whispers Nupee told me of the 

 big frog hunama, and its ways. It never came 

 to the ground, or even descended part way down 

 the trees; and by some unknown method of dis- 

 tillation it made little pools of its own in deep 

 hollows and there lived. And this water was 

 thick like honey and white like milk, and when 

 stirred became reddish. Besides which, it was 

 very bitter. If a man drank of it, forever after 

 he hopped each night and clasped all the trees 

 which he encountered, endlessly endeavoring to 

 ascend them and always failing. And yet, if he 

 could once manage to reach a pool of kunama 

 water in an uncut tree and drink, his manhood 

 would return and his mind be healed. 



When the Indians desired this beena, they 

 marked a tree whence a frog called at night, 

 and in the daytime cut it down. Forming a 

 big circle, they searched and found the frog, and 

 forthwith smoked it and rubbed it on arrows 

 and bow before they went out. I listened 

 gravely and found it all fitted in with the magic 



