THE FOREST. 



87 



proceeded on our journey, and soon passed the last house, and 

 entered upon the wild, unbroken and uninhabited virgin forest. 

 The stream was very narrow and very winding, running with 

 great rapidity round the bends, and often much obstructed by 

 bushes and fallen trees. The branches almost met overhead, 

 and it was as dark and gloomy and silent as can be imagined. 

 In these sombre shades a flower was scarcely ever to be found. 

 A few of the large blue butterflies {Morphos) were occasionally 

 seen flitting over the water or seated upon a leaf on the banks, 

 and numerous green-backed kingfishers darted along before us. 

 Early in the afternoon we found a little cleared place where 

 hunters were accustomed to stay, and here we hung up our 

 hammocks, lit our fire, and prepared to pass the night. After 

 an excellent supper and some coffee, I lay down in my 

 hammock, gazing up through the leafy canopy overhead, to the 

 skies spangled with brightly shining stars, from which the fire- 

 flies, flitting among the foliage, could often hardly be distin- 

 guished. They were a species of Fyropkorus^ larger than any 

 I had seen in Para. They seemed attracted by the fire, to 

 which they came in numbers ; by moving one over the lines 

 of a newspaper I was enabled easily to read it. The Indians 

 amused themselves by recounting their hunting adventures, 

 their escapes from jaguars and serpents, or of their being lost 

 in the forest. One told how he had been lost for ten days, and 

 all that time had eaten nothing, for he had no farinha, and 

 though he could have killed game he would not eat it alone, 

 and seemed quite surprised that I should think him capable 

 of such an action, though I should certainly have imagined a 

 week's fast would have overcome any scruples of that sort. 



The next day the Indians went hunting, proposing to return 

 early in the afternoon to proceed on, and I searched the woods 

 after insects ; but in these gloomy forests, and without any 

 paths along which I could walk with confidence, I met with 

 little success. In the afternoon some of them returned with 

 two trumpeters {Psophia viridis) and a monkey, which I skinned ; 

 but as one Indian did not arrive till late, we could not continue 

 our voyage till the next day. This night we were not so 

 fortunate as the last, for just about dusk it began to rain, and 

 our canoes were so small and so loaded with articles that must 

 be kept dry, that we had little chance of making ourselves 

 comfortable in them. I managed to crowd in somehow, terribh? 



