266 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



small party of the carnivorous foraging ants; now, grasp- 

 ing a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire- 

 ants; and among all these my attention was particularly 

 arrested by the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung 

 like a hornet, so that I felt it for three hours. The cama- 

 radas generally went barefoot or only wore sandals; and 

 their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed from the 

 bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually in- 

 capacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, 

 our faces and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda 

 bites; and in spite of our clothes we were bitten all over 

 our bodies, chiefly by ants and the small forest ticks. Be- 

 cause of the rain and the heat our clothes were usually wet 

 when we took them off at night, and just as wet when we 

 put them on again in the morning. 



All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, mak- 

 ing good progress. In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy 

 tree-trunk every one had to assist now and then. The 

 work continued until ten in the evening, as the weather 

 was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles and 

 the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the 

 great, half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights 

 showed the tropic forest rising in the darkness round about. 

 The night air was hot and still and heavy with moisture. 

 The men were stripped to the waist. Olive and copper 

 and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and rippled 

 with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath. 



On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in 

 a torrential tropic downpour. The canoe was finished, 

 dragged down to the water, and launched soon after mid- 

 day, and another hour or so saw us under way. The 



