The Highland Wilderness 199 



the top of the head. It is hard to decide whether to 

 wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which 

 it is hit or butted with the head, as it conies down through 

 the air, or at the reckless speed and skill with which the 

 players throw themselves headlong on the ground to re- 

 turn the ball if it comes low down. Why they do not 

 grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the 

 players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if 

 it came in their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous 

 toss of the head that it often flew in a great curve for a 

 really astonishing distance. 



That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Ker- 

 mit and I were sleeping, entering first at one end and then 

 at the other. It is extraordinary that he did not waken 

 us; but we slept undisturbed while the ox deliberately ate 

 our shirts, socks, and underclothes ! It chewed them into 

 rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, al- 

 though chewed full of holes, was still good for some 

 weeks' wear ; but the other things were in fragments. 



In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to 

 have breakfast over on the benches under the trees by the 

 waterfall, whose roar, lulled to a thunderous murmur, 

 had been in our ears before we slept and when we waked. 

 There could have been no more picturesque place for the 

 breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who 

 really care to see what is most beautiful and most char- 

 acteristic of the far interior o-f 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 warrants it they will be made still more 

 so; then, from Sao Luis de Caceres, they will be speedily 



