THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS 187 



design, but merely to find out whether it would prove to 

 be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an atti- 

 tude of prayer. This struck Cartucho as both novel and 

 interesting, and he thrust his sniffing black nose still nearer. 

 The mantis dexterously thrust forward first one and then 

 the other armed fore leg, touching the intrusive nose, which 

 was instantly jerked back and again slowly and inquiringly 

 brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in Car- 

 tucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp 

 of dismay, almost turned a back somersault; and the tri- 

 umphant mantis flew back to the middle of the ox-hide, 

 among the plates, where it reared erect and defied the 

 laughing and applauding company. 



On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in 

 starting, because the rain had continued through the night 

 into the morning, drenching everything. After nightfall 

 there had been some mosquitoes, and the piums were a pest 

 during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny black 

 spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the 

 slippery mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself 

 so that it had to be abandoned. Soon after starting we 

 came on the telegraph-line, which runs from Cayuba; this 

 was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis Indians 

 joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in 

 hat, shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary 

 Brazilian cahoclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usu- 

 ally with little white blood in them, are colloquially and 

 half-derisively styled — caboclo being originally a Guarany 

 word meaning "naked savage." These two Indians 

 were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and 

 had been patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock car- 



