JUNGLE-HUNTING IN PANAMA 
passing a deserted shelter where some 
lone caouchero, or rubber hunter, lived 
while gathering his valuable “crop” 
from the hills. When a man finds a 
rubber tree he may mark it, his rights 
are always respected, and he may col- 
lect its milky, bitter juice at leisure. 
The Indians are good rubber hunters, 
but, like all Indians, are not accustomed 
to regular work. They, as well as 
many of their more civilized rivals, dis- 
count the future and in order to secure 
all the rubber possible from the tree, 
kill it by the methods used in extracting 
the juice. The better class preserve the 
trees and tap them every year. 
You reach an Indian village and, if 
you have the good fortune not to 
frighten away the tribe, you can see a 
race of sturdy, straight-haired men and 
women, almost naked, brownish yellow 
in color and with rather pleasing fea- 
tures. The open sesame to their 
friendship is often found by the old 
“exchange of courtesy” with the chief, 
where a “Salud, sefor,’ when the rum 
is taken, is of more value toward se- 
curing photographs and curios than 
unlimited money would be. 
These people live, but slightly modi- 
fied by civilization, as they have always 
lived. Their houses consist of plat- 
forms raised from the ground and 
covered by a roof of thatch. There 
are no walls nor partitions and several 
families make use of the same shelter 
for cooking, eating and sleeping. Chil- 
dren are born and old people die all 
together in this truly communistic 
society, where all is in common and one 
man’s good fortune is the good fortune 
of all. - 
Crudely made stools and _ baskets, 
weapons, ornaments and canoes consti- 
tute the entire possessions of these 
simple people. They raise a little corn, 
which they crush in a wooden mortar 
with a huge pestle. A few herbs are 
used as medicine, but “magic” by the 
medicine man is their principal way of 
treating disease. A “charm stick” 
was secured, after much persuasion, 
505 
from our friend, the chief, and is one 
of the best of its class. This carved 
“cacique stick” will, it is believed, stop 
hemorrhage from any cause whatso- 
ever, is much prized by the natives and 
difficult to obtain. 
One of the most remarkable things 
about these men is that they can travel 
rapidly, without shoes or clothes, 
through a country so tangled with vines 
and thorns as to be impassable to an 
outsider unless equipped with a ma- 
chete. Indian runners can cover aston- 
ishing distances through these heavily 
timbered hills in a day and come 
through less scratched and marked than 
a white man well shod and clothed. 
They are fine woodsmen and kill all 
sorts of game with their old muzzle- 
loading guns, shooting a pinch of pow- 
der and a few slugs. These slugs are 
carefully dug out of the game and used 
again, for lead must be secured by 
trade, and every one cheats the poor 
Indian. 
As an example of their lack of 
knowledge of civilized customs and 
articles: a member of our party on one 
occasion gave an Indian an old coat, for 
which he seemed very grateful in his 
undemonstrative way. The donor re- 
membered the next day that some gold 
and paper money had been left in the 
pocket of the coat. The Indian was 
met several days later and, when ques- 
tioned, said, through the interpreter, 
that he had found only a “piece of 
paper” and two yellow reals. He had 
used the “green paper” for gun wad- 
ding and had only kept the “yellow 
dimes” because he was not quite sure 
they were not some sort of money. 
Who can say that paper money has no 
intrinsic value in this country? 
All in all, a trip to the interior of 
Panama is well worth taking. The 
natives are reserved, but, as a usual 
thing, kindly disposed; the climate is 
not bad; there is enough in scenery and 
new sorts of game to keep one’s interest 
and one returns with a better appetite 
and “glad I went.” 
