194 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



in our ears before we slept and when we waked. There 

 could have been no more picturesque place for the break- 

 fast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care 

 to see what is. most beautiful and most characteristic of the 

 far interior of South America should in their journey visit 

 this region, and see the two great waterfalls. They are 

 even now easy of access; and as soon as the traffic war- 

 rants it they will be made still more so; then, from Sao 

 Luis, de Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light 

 steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's auto- 

 mobile ride, with a couple of days on horseback in between. 



The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis 

 Indians over an incident which caused him grave concern. 

 One of the commission's employees, a negro, had killed a 

 wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it appeared that he had 

 really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as the 

 members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged 

 were much given to carrying off the Parecis women and in 

 other ways making themselves bad neighbors. The colonel 

 tried hard to get at the truth of the matter; he went to 

 the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a hammock— an 

 Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way — 

 while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round 

 about; but it was impossible to get an absolutely frank 

 statement. 



It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had 

 made a descent on the Parecis village in the momentary 

 absence of the men of the village; but the latter, notified 

 by the screaming of the women, had returned in time to 

 rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good 

 rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of 



