488 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
to kill me. There were several people at the 
cuniico, including the pilot's wife, other sons and 
daughters, a son-in-law, etc. They were engaged 
in distilling bureche, and my men on arrival began 
to test its quality, which, though not of the best, 
sufficed to turn their heads and set them vomiting, 
all except the son-in-law (Pedro Yurebe), who drank 
enough to make him noisy but not to render his 
movements unsteady. 
The cuniico consisted of two sheds, open at the 
sides, in one of which the still was at work. The 
port where the canoe was anchored was perhaps 
some So yards distant, down a rather steep descent. 
I had my hammock taken up and fastened under 
one of the sheds, and when night fell, after eating 
a small quantity of the forequarter of an alligator 
which I bought of Yurebe, I turned in. The 
Indians were very noisy, but as nothing is more 
tiresome than the conversation of these people 
when intoxicated, I paid little attention to it, save 
that I noticed one of the pilot's sons was inviting 
his brother-in-law Yurebe to make the voyage 
with us to the Barra. After a while I heard them 
talk so much about " heinali "-^ that I could not help 
listening attentively to what they said, and it was 
well I did so. 
Pedro Yurebe owed some forty-three pesos to 
the Comisario of San Carlos and others, but he had 
no scruple to leave this unpaid till his return from 
the Barra, and a brilliant idea had just struck him. 
" The man," he said, was going to his own country, 
^ "Heinali" means "the man." Spanish Indians in talking of their 
master call him el hombre, and when speaking their own language translate 
this by its corresponding term. 
