98 HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 



poles, one with the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The 

 American flag was run up on the other as I stepped 

 ashore, while the band played the national anthems of 

 the two countries. The house held much comfort ; and 

 the comfort was all the more appreciated because even 

 indoors the thermometer stood at 97° F. In the late 

 afternoon heavy rain fell, and cooled the air. We were 

 riding at the time. Around the house the birds were 

 tame : the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered 

 in the tree-tops ; jacanas played in the wet ground just 

 back of the garden ; ibises and screamers called loudly 

 in the swamps a little distance off". 



Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch- 

 house we had been passing through a hot, fertile, 

 pleasant wilderness, where the few small palm-roofed 

 houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane, corn, and 

 mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these 

 little houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly hke 

 the mounds which form the only hillocks along the 

 lower Mississippi, and which are also of Indian origin. 

 These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are 

 the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of 

 the upper Paraguay region. There are still Indian tribes 

 in this neighbourhood. We passed an Indian fishing 

 village on the edge of the river, mth huts, scaffoldings 

 for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They 

 cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a 

 shallow place in the river was a scaffolding on which the 

 Indians stood to spear fish. The Indians were friendly, 

 peaceable souls, for the most part dressed like the poorer 

 classes among the Brazilians. 



Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo, 

 or round-up, and we determined to have a hunt first, as 

 there were still several kinds of beasts of the chase. 



