INCESSANT RAIN 191 



slaughter and peril" standing above "the wine-dark 

 flats below." 



It rained during most of the day after our arrival 

 at Utiarity. Whenever there was any let-up, the men 

 promptly came forth from their houses and played 

 headball with the utmost vigour ; and we would listen 

 to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph 

 until we also grew interested and strolled over to look 

 on. They are more infatuated with the game than an 

 American boy is with baseball or football. It is an 

 extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game 

 should be played by, and only by, one little tribe of 

 Indians in what is almost the very centre of South 

 America. If any traveller or ethnologist knows of a 

 tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he 

 would let me know. To play it demands great activity, 

 vigour, skill, and endurance. Looking at the strong, 

 supple bodies of the players, and at the number of 

 children round about, it seemed as if the tribe must be 

 in vigorous health ; yet the Parecis have decreased in 

 numbers, for measles and smallpox have been fatal 

 to them. 



By the evening the rain was coming down more 

 heavily than ever. It was not possible to keep the 

 moisture out of our belongings ; everything became 

 mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that 

 night ; and daylight saw the downpour continuing with 

 no prospect of cessation. The pack-mules could not 

 have gone on with the march ; they were already rather 

 done up by their previous ten days' labour through rain 

 and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the 

 weather became better before attempting to go forward. 

 Moreover, there had been no chance to take the desired 

 astronomical observations. There was very little grass 



