332 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



While procuring it, exposure to the rain, which fell in 

 torrentS; brought on a return, of inflammation in the 

 stomach, and I was obliged to have recourse again to the 

 lancet, and to use it with an unsparing hand. I wanted 

 another ball, but was not in a state the next morning to 

 proceed to the trees. A fine interesting young Indian 

 observing my eagerness to have it, tendered his services, 

 and asked me two handsful of fish-hooks for his trouble. 



Off he went, and to my great surprise returned in a 

 very short time. Bearing in mind the trouble and time 

 it had cost me to make a ball, I could account for this 

 Indian's expedition in no other way except that, being an 

 inhabitant of the forest, he knew how to go about his 

 work in a much shorter way than I did. His ball, to be 

 sure, had very little elasticity in it. I tried it repeatedly, 

 but it never rebounded a yard high. The young Indian 

 watched me with great gravity, and when I made him 

 imderstand that I expected the ball would dance better, 

 he called another Indian, who knew a little English, to 

 assure me that I might be quite easy on that score. The 

 young rogue, in order to render me a complete dupe, 

 brought the new moon to his aid. He gave me to under- 

 stand that the ball was like the little moon, which he 

 pointed to, and by the time it grew big and old, the ball 

 would bounce beautifully. This satisfied me, and I gave 

 him the fish-hooks, which he received without the least 

 change of countenance. 



I bounced the ball repeatedly for two months after, but 

 I found that it still remained in its infancy. At last I 

 suspected tbat the savage (to use a vulgar phrase) had 

 come Yorkshire over me ; and so I determined to find out 

 how he had managed to take me in. I cut the ball in 

 two, and then saw what a taught trick he had played me. 

 It seems he had chewed some leaves into a lump, the size 



