NOISY FROGS 197 



They killed a bush deer — a small deer — and ate literally 

 every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. 

 For much of the time on this trip they lived on wild 

 fruit, and the two dogs that remained alive would wait 

 eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit that was 

 skaken down. 



In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at 

 this camp, but we had gloves and head-nets, and were 

 not bothered; and, although there were some mos- 

 quitoes, we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The 

 frogs in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. 

 Miller told of a little tree-frog in Colombia which 

 swelled itself out with air, until it looked like the frog 

 in iEsop's fables, and then brayed like a mule ; and 

 Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a 

 short, loud roar. 



Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay 

 through country like that which we had been traversing 

 for ten days. Skeletons of mules and oxen were more 

 frequent ; and once or twice by the wayside we passed 

 the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. 

 Barbed wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We 

 camped on the west bank of the Burity River. Here 

 there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two Parecis Indians, as 

 employes of the Telegraphic Commission, under the 

 Colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had 

 two wives — all these Indians are pagans. All were 

 dressed much like the poorer peasants of the Brazilian 

 back-country, and all were pleasant and weU-behaved. 

 The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. 

 They had no cultivated fields, and for weeks they had 

 been living only on game and honey ; and they hailed 

 with joy our advent and the quantities of beans and 

 rice which, together with some beef, the Colonel left 



