324 TIMEHRI. 
wood for beetles or rare grubs, by which means I became 
possessed of a fine colle€tion of Coleoptera. 
From these excursions I generally returned to my hut 
about noon, and after a meal occupied myself with 
arranging and preparing the colle&tions made; this finished 
I took an hour’s rest. Then, about two o’clock in the 
afternoon, a real botanical excursion in the surrounding 
country was undertaken, from which I generally re- 
turned with some rich floral treasures. A bath in the 
clear cold water of the Arabo-pu concluded the day’s 
work, after which I returned to my hut, where I generally 
met Indians of the neighbourhood with provisions and 
natural curiosities for barter. 
I was thus visited about the end of the first week by 
an Arekuna family from a distant settlement on the 
Kukenaam. Among the party were four young girls 
who excelled in beauty all Indians I had hitherto seen. 
They may have been twelve to fifteen years of age and 
were already completely developed, so well formed in 
their bodies, and so harmoniously proportioned in their 
limbs, as to have served a sculptor for models of a 
Venus. At the same time, their charming faces did not 
show the pouting lips and bottle noses of negroes and 
coloured people, but on the contrary the latter were 
those of noble Romans, and their small mouths showed 
the former to be thin and very little projeé&ted. Their 
sparkling black eyes and raven dark hair completed 
their rare beauty, and in addition to this, like all Indian 
females, they had very small hands and feet like those 
of children. Except for their colour—which however 
was much lighter than that of other Indians—they could 
boldly rank with the most charming European women. 
