WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 261 



Continually confronted, as she was, by such trials and 

 difficulties, privations and dangers, one would imagine that 

 the delicately reared Frenchwoman would have sought im- 

 mediate release from an engagement that necessitated so 

 much exposure and suffering and sought surcease of sor- 

 row in the distractions and gaieties of pleasure-loving Paris. 



Nothing, however, was farther from her thoughts. In- 

 trepid and resourceful, she feared no danger and hesitated 



illustrates not only the bravery of the daring explorer, but also the 

 pusillanimity of her half-breed personnel when in the depths of the 

 forest at night: 



" 'Madam has no fear?' 



" Tear of what?' 



" 'Of tigers.' 



" 'No, it is not of tigers that I have fear.' 



'"Of Indians f ' 



" 'Neither have I fear of Indians.' 



" 'Then, madam, it is something which is in the woods, which 

 we do not know, that can harm us.' 



" 'You know very well what frightens me. I am afraid that the 

 bats will attack my chickens during the night. If you hear them 

 making a noise you must get up.' 



"I laugh heartily in observing their astonished look and ask 

 myself how men whose consciences are stained with many bloody 

 crimes can have fear here. Joas-Felix gives me the explanation: 



" 'Madam makes game of us. None the less, madam, I am a man 

 in the city and in the savanna. With my poignard and machete I 

 fear nothing, neither man nor beast. But here, madam, where every- 

 thing is dark, even in the daytime; where an enemy may be lying 

 in wait for us behind every tree; it is not the same thing. It would 

 be impossible for me to live in the forest. One cannot see far 

 enough in it.' 



"Now I understand better their terror. The mysterious depth 

 of the virgin forest impresses them. The opaque obscurity of the 

 night in the underwood contrasts too strongly with the moonlit 

 savanna where they have been reared. The low and sombre vault 

 of the woods oppresses them and they imagine they are going to be 

 crushed. They lose their heads and see in every tree a phantom 

 enemy. To reason with them is useless, for when fear takes pos- 

 session of them, there is nothing to be done." Voyage au May- 

 curu, p. 127. 



