18 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



spots in the shade near the bank, as beneath an overhanging tree. 

 When the wind shakes the foliage the mottled pattern of shade and 

 sunlight is confused, the dance slows down, and the dancers be- 

 come bewildered. In a storm they seek shelter in the jungle. The 

 hot, quiet, sunlit days bring out literally millions of these tiny 

 creatures. 



One of the longest deeps in the whole Urubamba lies just above 

 the Pongo at Mulanquiato. We drifted down with a gentle cur- 

 rent just after sunset. Shrill whistles, like those of a steam 

 launch, sounded from either bank, the strange piercing notes of 

 the lowland cicada, cicada tibicen. Long decorated canoes, bet- 

 ter than any we had yet seen, were drawn up in the quiet coves. 

 Soon we came upon the first settlement. The owner, Senor 

 Pereira, has gathered about him a group of Machigangas, and by 

 marrying into the tribe has attained a position of great influence 

 among the Indians. Upon our arrival a gun was fired to announce 

 to his people that strangers had come, upon which the Machi- 

 gangas strolled along in twos and threes from their huts, helped 

 us ashore with the baggage, and prepared the evening meal. Here 

 we sat down with five Italians, who had ventured into the rubber 

 fields with golden ideas as to profits. After having lost the larger 

 part of their merchandise, chiefly cinchona, in the rapids the year 

 before, they had established themselves here with the idea of pick- 

 ing rubber. Without capital, they followed the ways of the itiner- 

 ant rubber picker and had gathered "caucho," the poorer of the 

 two kinds of rubber. No capital is required; the picker simply 

 cuts down the likeliest trees, gathers the coagulated sap, and floats 

 it down-stream to market. After a year of this life they had 

 grown restless and were venturing on other schemes for the great 

 down-river rubber country. 



A few weeks later, on returning through the forest, we met 

 their carriers with a few small bundles, the only part of their 

 cargo they had saved from the river. Without a canoe or the 

 means to buy one they had built rafts, which were quickly torn to 

 pieces in the rapids. We, too, should have said "pobres Italianos" 

 if their venture had not been plainly foolish. The rubber terri- 



