THE MAN OF THE FOREST. 47 



is unsightly for a time, but this is soon filled 

 up and obliterated as if it had never beea 



The Indian hardly cares to fight with his 

 great rival. He chooses a place for his shelter 

 on the sand-reef, where trees are few and easily 

 kept down. Even when he makes a clearing for 

 his wife's cassava field, it is kept open only for 

 two or three years. When the forest commences 

 its grand work of regaining this little portion of 

 its domain, the red man finds the labour too 

 arduous, and prefers to make another clearing. 

 The richer the soil the more difficult it becomes 

 to make any headway, and as cassava flourishes 

 only on the most fertile spots, and soon exhausts 

 these, the struggle would be almost useless, even 

 if it were possible. 



The habitation of the Indian is a very simple 

 structure only a shelter from the rain, raised on a 

 few sticks. The largest houses are well-built, ob- 

 long sheds, thatched with palm leaves, under which 

 are hung the hammocks, that serve for both chair 

 and bed, being in fact the only real article of 

 furniture. A shed, or benab as it is called, can 

 be easily erected anywhere in the forest. When 

 the Indians are travelling a temporary shelter is 

 put up for the night in an hour or two, and even 

 a good-sized dwelling can be erected in a day. 



