50 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called him- 

 self, a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, 

 or workers, who lived in a long line of wooden cabins 

 back of the main building, were mostly Paraguayans, 

 with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argen- 

 tine foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who 

 were camped in the usual squalid fashion of Indians 

 who are hangers-on round the white man but have not 

 yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work 

 cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children 

 were in camp. Some individuals of both sexes were 

 naked to the waist. One little girl had a young ostrich 

 as a pet. 



Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of 

 wild muscovy ducks. Our tame birds come from this wild 

 species and its absurd misnaming dates back to the period 

 when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed in similar 

 fashion — our European forefathers taking a large and 

 hazy view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, 

 India, and Muscovy as places which, in their capacity of 

 being outlandish, could be comprehensively used as in- 

 cluding America. The muscovy ducks were very good 

 eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They wad- 

 dled on the sand-bars in big flocks and crowded the trees 

 by the water's edge. Beautiful snow-white egrets also 

 lit in the trees, often well back from the river. A fuU- 

 foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface crowded 

 with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with 

 huge white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and 

 there on the sand-bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and 



