\ WOMAN'S EXPERIENCES IN VENEZUELA. 101 



telles," and they paid no attention to us. The venomous 

 effect of the bites of all these eight or hundred-legged beings 

 is greatly exaggerated, and there is absolutely no serious dan- 

 ger to a healthy person with good red blood in his veins; in 

 some of the half-starved, rum-drinking natives the scratch of 

 a pin would induce blood-poisoning. 



Labor was easily secured in Guanoco. The morning after 

 our arrival we expressed a wish to employ a boy to act as 

 attendant, carrying camera, gun, butterfly net, etc., when we 

 went on our long tramps. One of the young men at head- 

 quarters went to the door and called " muchacho" and at 

 once a small boy appeared. I should have judged his age 

 to be between eleven and twelve; but he himself did not 

 know. He said his grandmother was " keeping his age." A 

 charming idea is that Venezuelan custom of having some 

 responsible member of the family keep all the ages. Think 

 of being able to say truthfully that you really do not know how 

 old you are! But then a Venezuelan woman never confesses 

 to more than twenty-seven, no matter what may have been the 

 flight of time. 



Our small servant's name proved to be Maximiliano Ro- 

 mero, and with supreme self possession, boldly spitting to the 

 right and left, he professed himself willing to enter our service. 

 Like a true Venezuelan he used expectoration to punctuate all 

 his remarks. What a quaint little figure he was, topped by 

 a huge straw hat with a high peaked crown; the hat the work 

 of the little brown hands of Max himself, for he was a hat- 

 maker by profession. His face was alert but very grave. 

 He rarely smiled, but when he did it was in no half-hearted 

 way, but with an abandon of childish glee. I found myself 

 devoting a good deal of valuable time to trying to bring into 

 being that charming smile of Maxhniliano's. One never 

 knew just what would touch the right chord. Once he went 

 off into gales of merriment at the escape of a lizard which we 



