Across Nhambiquara Land 21 1 



all were pleasant and well-behaved. The women ran the 

 ferry about as well as the men. They had no cultivated 

 fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game 

 and honey ; and they hailed with joy our advent and the 

 quantities of beans and rice which, together with some 

 beef, the colonel left with them. They feasted most of 

 the night. Their houses contained their hammocks, 

 baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some 

 poultry. In one house was a tiny parakeet, very much at 

 home, and familiar, but by no means friendly, with 

 strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the neigh- 

 borhood, and recently several of these had menaced the 

 two ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at 

 them. The ferr)mien had driven them off by firing their 

 rifles in the air ; and they expected and received the colo- 

 nel's praise for their self-restraint; for the colonel is 

 doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop their 

 blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester 

 carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber- 

 gatherers and other adventurous wanderers in the forest 

 wilderness of Brazil. There were a number of rubber- 

 trees in the neighborhood, by the way. 



We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it 

 was impossible to make headway by swimming against 

 the racing current. There were few mosquitoes. On the 

 other hand, various kinds of piums were a little too 

 abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to 

 things like black flies. The small stingless bees have no 

 fear and can hardly be frightened away when they light 

 on the hands or face; but they never bite, and merely 

 cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin. There 



