68 IN THE WILDS OP SOUTH AMERICA 



hundred yards below the group of hovels, the Hdvita is 

 joined by the Rio Irigara. The water of both streams is 

 swift, cool, and of a bluish-gray color. Each of the streams 

 is about seventy-five yards wide just above the junction. 



After crossing another ridge which required two days' 

 time, we reached Juntas de Tamand, on the south bank of 

 the Hdvita, a stone's throw above the point where this 

 stream empties into the Tamand,, and but four hundred 

 feet above sea-level. Excepting only the Httle clearing in 

 which the fifteen dilapidated negro abodes stand, the en- 

 tire country is covered with a forest of tail trees; there is 

 little imdergrowth, but many of the lower branches are 

 covered with epiphytes, and long vines or "forest ropes" 

 dangle down from the interlocking tree-tops to the very 

 groxmd. 



The negroes of Juntas are a miserable, sickly lot. They 

 suffer from lack of food, for the simple reason that they are 

 too indolent to grow in sufficient quantities the plantains, 

 yuccas, and other plants that thrive with a minimum of 

 attention in such a favorable location. Instead of making 

 clearings and cultivating the fertile ground, they prefer to 

 lounge in their hammocks and take a chance at starving to 

 death. At irregular intervals, when the pinch of want is 

 too great to endure longer, the men paddle ih canoes to 

 their fincas to cut sugar-cane, gather plantains, and to 

 pick palm-nuts in the forest. Upon their return the family 

 gathers about the food and eats until not a vestige remains. 

 So effectively do they attack the moimd of provisions that 

 one might easily imagine a swarm of locusts had paid the 

 region a visit. 



A day or two after our arrival at Jimtas a two-year-old 

 child belonging to one of the families died. The news 

 spread rapidly and by night the entire neighborhood had 

 turned out for a wake. We followed the crowd. The 

 baby, in a white dress, with bright red and green ribbon 

 trimming,, lay in a wooden box on the table. A canopy of 

 muslin had been erected above the bier which was strewn 



