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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN [ Vol. 8, No. 1 



one morning they descended on the miners scattered through the region and in 

 about two hours liquidated nearly 30 of the intruders. 



A detachment of the Ecuadorean army was sent in to catch and punish the 

 "outlaw savages. " They burned a few houses, and tore up a few gardens, but 

 didn't catch a single Jivaro. In return, the Jivaros dealt with the army in their 

 own fashion. They efficiently worked a "platoon system" of replacements and so 

 got ample rest. For the army detachment, sleep at night was impossible for there 

 were constant alarms from all quarters. Sleep during the day was equally out of 

 the question for, if a soldier drowsed, a spear would strike the ground nearby, tip 

 over and slap him on the head (the Jivaros are excellent spearsmen). Sentries 

 posted to guard a group trying to get some sleep could see the deadly poisoned 

 darts zipping by, or setting themselves perilously close in the bark of the tree 

 against which they might be leaning. They would then fire their rifles blindly into 

 the jungle gloom, only to get back an echo of mocking laughter. Not a soldier 

 was ever nicked, so careful was the aim of the Jivaro warriors At the end of a 

 week the army retired from the scene, routed not by wounds and loss of blood, 

 but with hurt pride and loss of sleep. Some months later, to save face on both 

 sides, the Jivaros turned one of their men over to the officials, stating that he 

 was the one to be punished, since he had been the instigator of the affair. (Later, 

 while with them and after gaining their confidence, I was told with a sly wink 

 that they were only too glad to make the deal; the fellow was a chronic trouble- 

 maker and they had been waiting for some excuse— under their own "laws"— to 

 get rid of him.) It was this group of Jivaros around the base of the Cutucu which 

 had been concerned with the "uprising" and I was gravely assured that it was 

 very dangerous to enter their territory so soon after the "massacre." 



Leaving from Cuenca, we took the trail across the Cordillera from El Pan to 

 Mendez. From Mendez northward along the Rio Upano we had been making in- 

 creasingly frequent contacts with the Jivaros. Finally, near the confluence of the 

 Chupiantza with this stream, we settled down to make ourselves really ac- 

 quainted. After several days spent in parley with the chief of the area, Jorgensen 

 and I were invited to move across the stream and spend the night in his house. 

 Here was the first step, but the real problem was to open the way for the band of 

 Cholo assistants we had brought with us for, in general, it was death for a Cholo 

 to set foot in the territory of the Jivaros. This finally was arranged and I split 

 my group: one part under the leadership of Prieto was to stay on the west bank of 

 the Upano, to take care of the mules and tend the driers; the other to ascend the 

 Cutucu to assist there and also relay back the undried specimens to Prieto as we 

 collected them. This was a necessity, since there were no real trails into the 

 Cutucu and I had been unable to get any of the Jivaros to act as carriers. How- 

 ever, several agreed to go along, and by the time it ended we had quite a party, 

 with a group of men, several of their wives and nursing babies, and a string of 

 'teen-aged hunters, already wise in the lore of the jungle Arriving several days 

 later in the central part of the Cutucu we set up base camp, the Jivaros on one 

 side of the little river and we on the other. During the days the Jivaros went 

 about their business of fishing and hunting monkeys, and we went about our busi- 

 ness of hunting for the fever-bark tree. In the evenings, we visited back and forth. 



My great regret was that I had picked up so few words of Jivaro. Fortunately 

 Patehi, my favorite of all the group, could speak a little Spanish, and so we 

 would sit long hours either by my fire or his and slowly piece out a conversation. 

 Jorgensen had taken several of the spare men and crossed the Cutucu into the 

 basin of the Rio Yapi. The Cholo runner supposed to bring in extra supplies had 

 not arrived (I was to learn later that he had fallen ill and was unable to make the 



