AMONG THE YURACARfi INDIANS 315 



number with their arrows before the band realized what 

 had occurred and took flight. 



Large areas covered with an impenetrable cane-jungle 

 are scattered all along the borders of the Chimore. The 

 tall stalks rise to a height of fifty feet or more, and are 

 beautiful to look at, but impossible to penetrate until a 

 trail has been cleared with hatchet or machete. The plant 

 resembles the well-known sugar-cane of our Southern States, 

 but grows much taller, and the stems are thin and hard. A 

 large, white, feathery plimie crowns each stalk. This plant 

 is of inestimable value to the natives. The long poles are 

 used almost exclusively in constructing their dwellings, 

 and the leaves make an impervious thatch. Practically 

 every stalk is infested with thick white grubs which live 

 in the pith. These are extracted by the Yuracarfe, who 

 call them chata, and used for bait when fishing. Many 

 runways perforate the matted growth; these have been 

 made by capybaras, agoutis, and numerous other animals. 

 Even tapirs seem to appreciate the protection afforded by 

 the thick cover and resort to it in the daytime, while jag- 

 uars noiselessly steal along the paths in the course of their 

 nightly prowls. One night we had an excellent illustra- 

 tion of how useful the cane-plant, or chuchilla, as the In- 

 dians call it, can be in an emergency. We had landed on a 

 sand-bank rather early in the evening, spurred to this action 

 by rapidly approaching black clouds, flashes of lightning, 

 and the rumbling of distant thunder which bespoke the 

 arrival of a tropical rain-storm. At first it looked as if we 

 should be compelled to endure a thorough drenching, but 

 Padre Fulgencio issued a few orders to the canoemen, 

 and they hurried away to neighboring cane-brakes, with 

 machete in hand; soon they returned, dragging an immense 

 quantity of the plant; four of the strongest poles were firmly 

 planted in the sand to form a square, about fifteen feet 

 apart, and the tops bent over and tied together with strips 

 of their leaves. These served as the comer posts of a 

 shelter. Other stalks were laid across the top to form 



