of an Orchid Hunter. ^^ 



cover the whole of the primitive bedstead and keep 

 the hungry hordes at a safe distance. If in the 

 journey up the Magdalena the luxuriant vegetation 

 should become monotonous by continuation, this is 

 relieved by occasional villages of true Indian construc- 

 tion. The huts are low, beehive-like structures, with 

 walls of mud and thatched with palm-leaves. Others, 

 probably on the improved system, are made by driving 

 stout bamboo stakes into the ground, about four inches 

 from each other, to form the walls, or, more correctly 

 speaking, the inclosure. This, like the former, is 

 thickly thatched with palm-leaves. Inside all osten- 

 tatious extravagance in matters of furniture is re- 

 ligiously avoided. Bed ■ room, dining - room, and 

 drawing-room suites here are all supplied, in a primi- 

 tive manner, by about half-a-dozen blocks of wood, 

 serving the purposes of lounge, chairs, and fauteuil, 

 while a hammock or a few cow-hides take the place of 

 bedsteads and eider-down. A collection of gourds 

 and calabashes, with a few cracked bits of native 

 pottery, furnish an inexpensive, and at the same time 

 effective, table service. 



However, whatever art has neglected in interior 

 convenience and decoration Nature has supplied with 

 lavish prodigality in the surroundings. For, although 

 each Indian may not exactly, according to the proverb, 

 sit under his own vine and fig-tree, he can yet, even 



