194 THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS [chap, vi 



houses, and aU the doors and windows were shut and 

 blankets hung to prevent the possibiUty of seeing out. 

 But during the second part all the women and girls 

 come out and looked on. They were themselves to 

 have danced when the men had finished, but were 

 overcome with shyness at the thought of dancing with 

 so many strangers looking on. The children played 

 about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of 

 them throwing high in the air, and again catching in 

 his hands, a loaded feather, a kind of shuttlecock. 



In the evening the growing moon shone through the 

 cloud-rack. Anything approaching fair weather always 

 put our men in good spirits ; and the muleteers squatted 

 in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and hstened to 

 a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song 

 about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked 

 busily with our photographs and our writing. There 

 was so much humidity in the air that everything grew 

 damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly. 

 At this season it is a country in which writing, taking 

 photographs, and preparing specimens are all works of 

 difficulty, at least so far as concerns preserving and 

 sending home the results of the labour ; and a man's 

 clothing is never really dry. 



From here Father Zahm returned to Tapirapoan, 

 accompanied by Sigg. 



