AMONG THE YURACARfi INDIANS 317 



Lower down we saw numerous islands, some of large size 

 and of a peculiar formation. The river, which had risen 

 so rapidly a few days before, had gone down to its normal 

 level and left these obstructions in the channel exposed 

 high above the surface. A matted mass of logs and branches 

 of which a layer fifteen feet thick protruded above the 

 water, formed the base of the islands; on this soil had 

 gathered to a depth of five or six feet, and supported a 

 luxuriant growth of vegetation. These islands are com- 

 posed of deposits of driftwood which were left stranded on 

 sand-banks during the season of high water, and while the 

 edges are torn and jagged the force of succeeding floods 

 seems to be of insufficient strength to wash them away. 

 As we paddled along quietly near the banks the priest or 

 the Indians pointed out many interesting and curious 

 plants. One of these is the palo santo, or holy tree; it 

 grows to be a great height, but the trunk is comparatively 

 slender. The peculiar name is derived from the fact that 

 it is as carefully guarded as any sacred object should be, 

 but in this instance by myriads of fire-ants, which live in 

 the hollow interior of the trunk. If the tree is struck 

 sharply with a stick the ants pour out in endless files through 

 minute openings. They are vicious insects, and the bite 

 smarts and burns many hours after it is inflicted. The 

 tacuara, a species of tall, feathery bamboo, is another inter- 

 esting plant of this region. When the stalk is cut down the 

 leaves shrivel and dry within a few minutes. Large num- 

 bers of cabbage-palms grew throughout the forest. The 

 beautiful, plume-shaped leaves droop in a great umbrella- 

 like mass from the top of a column sixty or seventy feet high; 

 thick clumps of straight, tough roots branch out eight or 

 ten feet above the ground and form a solid support to the 

 stem. A delicious salad is made from the tender leaves, 

 folded up in the bud; or if boiled the flavor is similar to 

 that of asparagus. To secure the bud it is, of course, nec- 

 essary to cut down a tree which has taken the greater part 

 of a century to mature, but in a region where many mil- 



