242 THE iEllViER OF Doubt [chap, vm 



of savages. There were several abandoned old fields, 

 where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of 

 burnt and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquai-as been 

 long absent. In one trail we found what gipsies would 

 have called a " pateran," a couple of branches arranged 

 crosswise, eight leaves to a branch ; it had some special 

 significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with 

 some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which 

 are commonly used by many wild peoples. The Indians 

 had thrown a simple bridge, consisting of four long poles, 

 without a hand-rail, across one of the narrowest parts of 

 the rock gorge through which the river foamed in its 

 rapid descent. This subtribe of Indians was called the 

 Navaite ; we named the rapids after them — Navaite 

 Rapids. By observation Lyra found them to be (in 

 close approximation to) latitude 11° 44' south and longi- 

 tude 60° 18' west from Greenwich. 



We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th 

 in portaging around the rapids. The first night we 

 camped in the forest beside the spot where we had 

 halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the 

 foot of the rapids, where we intended to launch the 

 canoes, and pitched our tents on the open sandstone flat. 

 It rained heavily. The Uttle bees were in such swarms 

 as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were 

 with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by 

 huge horse-flies, the size of bumblebees. More serious 

 annoyance was caused by the pium and boroshuda flies 

 during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the 

 sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. 

 The boroshudas were the worst pests ; they brought the 

 blood at once, and left marks that lasted for weeks. I 

 did my writing in head-net and gauntlets. Fortunately 

 we had with us several bottles of " fly dope " — so named 



