CHAP. Ill] OUR NATIVE HUNTERS 73 



men, to live his life bravely, and no less bravely to face 

 death, without reference to what he believed, or did not 

 believe, or to what the unknown hereafter might hold 

 for him. 



The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy 

 men of mixed blood. They were barefooted and scantily 

 clad, and each carried a long, clumsy spear and a keen 

 machete, in the use of which he was an expert. Now 

 and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and 

 it was interesting to see one of them, although cumbered 

 by his unwieldy spear, handling his half-broken little 

 horse with complete ease while he hacked at limbs and 

 branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was much 

 the younger ; and whenever we came to an unusually 

 doubtful-looking ford or piece of boggy ground the 

 elder man always sent the younger one on and sat on 

 the bank until he saw what befell the experimenter. 

 Tn that rather preposterous book of our youth, the 

 " Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame 

 monkey called Nips, which was used to test all edible- 

 looking things as to the healthfulness of which the 

 adventurers felt doubtful ; and because of the obvious 

 resemblance of function we christened this younger 

 hunter Nips. Our guides were not only hunters, but 

 cattle-herders. The coarse dead grass is burned to 

 make room for the green young grass on which the 

 cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as 

 he rode ahead of us, without leaving the saddle, would 

 drop a lighted match into a tussock of tall dead blades ; 

 and even as we who were behind rode by tongues of 

 hot flame would be shooting up, and a local prairie fire 

 would have started. 



Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt 

 one day. He shot two of the big marsh-deer, a buck 



