114 IN THE WILDS OP SOUTH AMERICA 



The "Hotel de la Madre" is one of the institutions of 

 Yarumal. It is conducted by an old negress who looked 

 us over suspiciously and found it hard to decide whether or 

 not to admit us. While deliberating and fumbling about 

 her shawl she scratched her finger severely on a pin; to this 

 I immediately applied a few grains of permanganate taken 

 from my snake-bite lancet. This won her favor, and we 

 were given a room. Later she confided to us that two 

 Englishmen had stopped there the week before. "We were 

 frightened to death when we found out that they were 

 Englishmen," she said, "because England is at war, you 

 know. But what do you think ? They paid their bill next 

 morning and left without hurting anybody. However, we 

 made up our minds to be careful about admitting strangers 

 in the future." 



One may ride from Yarumal to Valdivia in one day; but 

 we broke the trip by stopping at a large wayside inn called 

 La Frijolera. It was in the midst of a splendid forest 

 growth, the elevation being five thousand feet. From a 

 distance the forest looked most promising, but on account 

 of the density of mosses, ferns, and creepers forming the 

 undergrowth it was all but impenetrable. 



We located a grove of guavas a short distance from the 

 house, and this proved the most prolific hunting-ground. 

 It was always possible to shoot squirrels there, as they 

 came out at all hours of the day to feed on the ripening 

 fruit. Many birds also flocked to the low trees for their 

 daily sustenance, and even opossums lurked about the 

 roots and brush to pick up the sweet morsels dropped by 

 the furred and feathered flocks feasting in the branches. 



At La Frijolera we engaged a native hunter who owned 

 a famous hunting-dog named Golondrina (meaning swal- 

 low). Words can hardly be found to convey an accurate 

 picture of the hunter, but the dog's name at once suggests 

 its chief accomplishment. Day after day our man took 

 his dog afield in search of agoutis, but he always returned 

 empty-handed, explaining that while he had started a num- 



