THE PUCUNA. 



147 



canoes to Huanuco, with the same cargo, and in addition some rice 

 and rare birds. Travellers go up by the river when it is low and by 

 land when the river is high. The returning party were going down on 

 balsas, which they had constructed at Tingo Maria. These balsas are 

 logs of a light kind of wood, called balsa wood, placed side by side, 

 half a foot apart, and secured by other pieces lashed athwart them. A 

 platform raised on small logs is elevated amidships for the cargo to rest 

 on ; and the rowers, standing upon the lower logs, have their feet in 

 the water all the time. After getting clear of all the rapids of a river 

 they of course may be built of any size, and comfortable houses erected 

 on them. I should have preferred coming down the Amazon in that 

 way, but that I contemplated ascending other rivers. 



We made our beds in the canoes under the shed, and, tired as we 

 were, slept comfortably enough. It seems a merciful dispensation of 

 Providence that the sand-flies go to bed at the same time with the 

 people; otherwise I think one could not live in this country. "We have 

 not yet been troubled with musquitoes. The sand-flies are here called 

 " mosquitos," the diminutive of mosca, a fly ; our musquitoes are called 

 sancudos. The sand-flies are very troublesome in the day, and one 

 cannot write or eat in any comfort. Every body's hands in this country 

 are nearly black from the effects of their bite, which leaves a little 

 round black spot, that lasts for weeks. It is much better to bear the 

 sting than to irritate the part by scratching or rubbing. 



August 8. — I sent Ijurra to Tocache to communicate with the 

 governor, while I spent the day in writing up my journal, and drying 

 the equipage that had been wetted in the journey. In the afternoon I 

 walked into the woods with an Indian, for the purpose of seeing him 

 kill a bird or animal with his pucuna. I admired the stealthy and 

 noiseless manner with which he moved through the woods, occasionally 

 casting a wondering and reproachful glance at me as I would catch mv 

 foot in a creeper and pitch into the bushes with sufficient noise to 

 alarm all the game within a mile round. At last he pointed out to 

 me a toucan, called by the Spaniards predicador, or preacher, sitting 

 on a branch of a tree, out of the reach of his gun. I fired and brought 

 him down with a broken wing. The Indian started into the bushes 

 after him ; but, finding him running, he came back to me for his 

 pucuna, which he had left behind. In a few minutes he brought the 

 bird to me with an arrow sticking in his throat. The bird was dead 

 in two minutes after I saw it, and probably in two and a half minutes 

 from the time that it was struck. The Indian said that his poison was 

 good, but that it was in a manner ejected by the flow of blood, which 



