144 TiMEHRI, 



lines of conventionalised animals such as were to be seen 

 on the two or three small benches on which his friends 

 crouched to raise themselves a little above the sand and 

 its army of jiggers. 



As he grew older he learnt the names of all the game 

 beasts, birds and fishes, and could shoot many of them 

 with his little bow or blow-pipe. The most useful trees 

 became also familiar to him — from this his bark canoe 

 had been peeled, that made the best dug-out, one was 

 suitable for bows or clubs, another best for paddles. He 

 learnt how to find his way through the forest by breaking 

 a twig here and there, and afterwards, by observing the 

 lay of the land, the watershed of the creek, and certain 

 prominent trees. Then his father showed him the old 

 logs in which the agouti and labba liked to hide, and the 

 fruit trees where parrots and monkeys congregated at 

 certain seasons. In the evening he went out with others 

 to set spring hooks all along the banks of the creek, 

 learnt where the largest fish could be generally caught, 

 and hunted by himself for the fat larvae which infested 

 the palms. These caterpillars, as well as some chrysalids 

 found in the cassava fields, he ate as he picked them, 

 cracking the latter as an English boy would hazel nuts. 



Hitherto he had been always called " boy" by his friends 

 but now they gave him the name Yacari (alligator). 

 What use this name could be to him was never con- 

 sidered by his parents — it was customary and the thing 

 was done. Only himself and a few others knew it, and as 

 they never used it, but still called him boy or friend it 

 was apparently needless. If an enemy learnt it he might 

 do him some, harm, on the same principle that a witch 

 was supposed to work injury by possessing a few hairs 



