240 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes, dotted 

 with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little 

 brook which was one of the headwaters of the Diivida. 

 It was a pleasure to see the mules greedily bury their 

 muzzles in the pasturage. Our tents were pitched in the 

 open, near a shady tree, which sent out its low branches 

 on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very 

 characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller 

 found two bats in the rotten wood of a dead log. He 

 heard them squeaking and dug them out; he could not 

 tell by what method they had gotten in. 



Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, 

 came across an encampment of Nhambiquaras. There 

 were twenty or thirty of them — ^men, women, and a few 

 children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in 

 the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, call- 

 ing out to give warning of his coming. Like surround- 

 ings may cause like manners. The early Saxons in 

 England deemed it legal to kill any man who came 

 through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn ; 

 and in Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against 

 etiquette, and may be very unhealthy, to come through 

 the woods toward strangers without loudly announcing 

 one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit 

 with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine 

 to drink. They were stark naked as usual ; they had no 

 hammocks or blankets, and their huts were flimsy shelters 

 of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine condition. 

 Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accom- 

 panied Kermit back to our camp, paying no slightest heed 

 to the rain which was falling. They were bold and 



