CHAPTER X. 



JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. 

 SOME PAGES FROM MY DIARY (continued). 



(By C. William Beebe.) 



FOR our supply of meat wc depended altogether upon 

 the efforts of an Indian hunter who made daily excur- 

 sions from the clearing after game, and who never failed to 

 come back heavily laden with some one of eight or ten 

 varieties of edible birds or mammals. He was an Arrawak, 

 going by the name of Francis, his real Indian name being of 

 course never revealed. Like most of the Indians we met, 

 he was quiet, serious and taciturn, but I had the good fortune 

 early to win his approbation and to satisfy him that, while my 

 hunting clothes were no match for his copper-colored skin 

 in stalking animals, yet I could manage to get through the 

 woods without any great noise or bustle. The only personal 

 information I could obtain from him was that he was born on 

 the upper Mazaruni, had a brother and two sisters and was 

 "'bout four hand" (twenty) years old. He got iifty cents a 

 day and his food for hunting and slept in a tiny hammock 

 swung beneath the bungalow floor. The Indian hunter at 

 Hoorie was paid sixty-eight cents a day without rations. 



Francis and I had some interesting tramps together and 

 one of my most enjoyable memories of these great tropical 

 jungles is of this little red-man, short, well-built, muscular and 

 absolutely tireless. I found him to be a great help in search- 

 ing for certain rare birds and animals, and I learned a good 

 deal of jungle craft from him. As one example among many 



316 



