146 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with 

 great branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff 

 blades radiated from the end of the midrib. One tree was 

 gorgeous with the brilliant hues of a flock of party-colored 

 macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking overhead. 



Now and then we were bitten and stung by the ven- 

 omous fire-ants, and ticks crawled upon us. Once we were 

 assailed by more serious foes, in the shape of a nest of 

 maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but about the size 

 of our hornets. We were at the time passing through dense 

 jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber, 

 holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. 

 The leading men were not assailed, although they were 

 now and then cutting the trail. Colonel Rondon and I 

 were in the middle of the column, and the swarm attacked 

 us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck, and hands, 

 the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled 

 and rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were 

 stung too; and we went at a rate that a moment previously 

 I would have deemed impossible over such ground. 



At the close of the day, when we were almost back at 

 the river, the dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no 

 trace of the mother. Some accident must have befallen 

 her, and the kitten was trying to shift for herself. She 

 was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains of 

 a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried car- 

 cass of some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which 

 deposit eggs in living beings — cattle, dogs, monkeys, ro- 

 dents, men — had been at it. There were seven huge, 

 white grubs making big abscess-like swellings over its eyes. 

 These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on Colonel 



