LIFE IN THE GUIANA WILDS 185 



of value) it would have no effect one way or the other, and 

 might still be retained. This latter, I believe, has occurred 

 in a number of instances. 



Our visit to Tumatumari was supposedly at the end of 

 the wet season; notwithstanding this, it rained copiously 

 nearly every day, and invariably each night. We spent 

 the evenings on the wide veranda of our habitation, pre- 

 paring specimens or writing notes. Myriads of insects, 

 attracted by our bright lamps, fluttered in and out of the 

 darkness and settled on the white walls. Our two colored 

 assistants, whom we had brought from Georgetown, were 

 trained and enthusiastic entomologists, having been em- 

 ployed by Doctor Rod way of the Georgetown Museum, 

 and spent several hours each night with net and cyanide 

 bottle. Frequently they caught several hundred speci- 

 mens in a short time. They also prepared cages of fine 

 wire netting in which caterpillars were imprisoned and 

 carefully fed, and glass boxes, or "incubators" for cocoons; 

 in this work they were most successful, and a number of 

 moths of rare and desirable species were reared to a state 

 of perfection. Sometimes the downpour was so heavy that 

 it disturbed small birds in their sleep in the bushes; on 

 several occasions finches (Sicalis) fluttered up to the lamp 

 in a dazed or bewildered manner, when we caught them 

 easily and placed them in a cage, liberating them the next 

 morning. 



Numbers of Indians of the Patamona tribe live in the 

 surrounding forest. They are a friendly though primitive 

 people, and some of them speak or understand a few words 

 of English. We accompanied the Protector of Indians, a 

 British official living at Tumatumari, to one of the Indian 

 dwellings one day. It seems that a negro had promised 

 to marry a Patamona woman, then ran away, when she 

 promptly married a man of her own tribe. Learning of 

 this, the former suitor had written a letter to the officer de- 

 manding either his bride or damages. The official spent a 

 very bad hour trying to explain the situation to the woman 



