296 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



a number of clearings, some of considerable size, where 

 fruits and vegetables were cultivated for the benefit of the 

 amos, as the owners of Indians are called; the Indians 

 cleared the ground, cultivated it, and then brought in the 

 results of their labor, receiving nothing in return. They 

 seemed fairly contented, however, and did not appear to be 

 suffering from ill treatment. They frequently spent days 

 at a time in their shelters on the edges of the fields, or in 

 hunting and fishing trips far from their homes. 



Each Yuracare woman kept a number of Amazon parrots 

 which she looked after carefully and refused to sell, even at 

 a good price. Upon asking the reason for this I was told 

 that they reared them for the sake of the tail-feathers, 

 which are in great demand by the Aymaras. Each parrot 

 will grow three "crops" of feathers a year, each of which 

 is worth fifty centavos. The Aymaras from the vicinity of 

 La Paz send down agents at regular intervals to purchase 

 these feathers, as they use them in making ornaments worn 

 during their annual festivals. 



In the branches of one of the tall trees near the village 

 a neat little hut had been built of bamboo and leaves, re- 

 minding one a great deal of a Philippine tree-dwelling. 

 Indians armed with bows and arrows would conceal them- 

 selves in this house, forty feet above the ground, and shoot 

 many of the birds which came to feed on the fruit covering 

 the tree; other Indians, hidden about the base of the 

 tree, watched where the birds fell, gathered them up and 

 skinned or plucked them. In this way quite a number 

 could be shot without alarming a feeding flock. 



The forest around Todos Santos abounds in wild life. 

 Squirrel-monkeys (Saimiri) are very numerous and travel 

 in troops of from twenty to fifty individuals; we saw them 

 daily, playing about in the trees, and feeding on fruits, 

 buds, and insects. They are delightful little pets, and 

 one that we owned spent the greater part of the day catch- 

 ing the mosquitoes which infested our habitation. It 

 searched eveiy nook and crevice for insects, and one of its 



