104 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



erence to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky be- 

 havior, of his wild, half-broken horse — for on such a ranch 

 most of the horses are apt to come in the categories of half- 

 broken or else of broken-down. One dusky tatterdemalion 

 wore a pair of boots from which he had removed the soles, his 

 bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath the uppers. He 

 was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode blindfold for 

 a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when he 

 removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to 

 him that the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse 

 for a man going out hunting and encumbered with a spear, 

 a machete, and other belongings. 



The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in 

 splashing across the marshes, with excursions now and then 

 into vine-tangled belts and clumps of timber. Some of the 

 bayous we had to cross were uncomfortably boggy. We 

 had to lead the horses through one, wading ahead of them; 

 and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles had 

 to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among 

 the marsh plants were fields and strips of the great caete 

 rush. These caete flags towered above the other and lesser 

 marsh plants. They were higher than the heads of the 

 horsemen. Their two or three huge banana-like leaves 

 stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers — 

 orange, red, and yellow — ^were joined into a singularly 

 shaped and solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed 

 round these flowers; one species, the sickle-billed hummer, 

 has its bill especially adapted for use in these queerly 

 shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them, never 

 appearing around any other plant. 



The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful 



