

62 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



important matter to the Indian, who is by no means 

 a good shot at a long range, he would naturally 

 attach great .importance to anything that would 

 help him towards this end. 



Near the settlement are always planted a few 

 beenas. A stranger, when he sees a clump of the 

 scarlet amaryllis (Hippeastrum equestre), or a pretty 

 collection of caladiums with different markings on 

 their arrow-shaped leaves, would think the wild man 

 of the forest had some sense of beauty in form and 

 colour. He is certainly not wanting in taste, as 

 may be seen from the arrangement of colours in 

 his feather crown, but even if this had anything to 

 do with the selection of these beautiful plants in 

 some bygone age, it does not appear to exist 

 to-day. An Indian wears no floral garlands, nor 

 does he seem to appreciate plants at all, otherwise 

 than for their utility. However, they are there 

 flowers enlivening the bare sand with a fiery glow, 

 and leaves mottled with white, pink, or crimson 

 ready for use if the hunter fails in shooting a tapir 

 or labba. The poor fellow comes home much de- 

 pressed his virtue has gone out of him. Years 

 before he had been inoculated for the jaguar, deer, 

 all the cavies, and even the alligator perhaps the 

 charm has worn out. Going to his clump of beenas 

 he takes up a bulb or tuber, and after making 



