38 
SANTAKEM. 
Chap. L 
bags on horseback by sunrise. His wretched httle 
farm produced nothing else. The house stood in the 
middle of the bare pasture, without garden or any sort 
of plantation ; a group of stately palms stood close by, 
to the trunks of which he secured the cows whilst 
milking. Butter-making is unknown in this country ; 
the milk, I was told, is too poor ; it is very rare indeed 
to see even the thinnest coating of cream on it, and the 
yield for each cow is very small. Our dairyman had to 
bring from Santarem every morning the meat, bread, 
and vegetables for the day's consumption. The other 
residents of Mahica were not even so well off as this 
man. I always had to bring my own provisions when I 
came this way, for a perennial famine seemed to reign 
in the place. I could not help picturing to myself the 
very different aspect this fertile tract of country would 
wear if it were peopled by a few families of agricultural 
settlers from Northern Europe. 
Although the meadows were unproductive ground to 
a Naturalist, the woods on their borders teemed with 
life : the number and variety of curious insects of all 
orders which occurred here was quite wonderful. The 
belt of forest was intersected by numerous pathways 
leading from one settler's house to another. The 
ground was moist, but the trees were not so lofty or 
their crowns so densely packed together as in other 
parts ; the sun's light and heat therefore had freer 
access to the soil, and the underwood was much more 
diversified than in the virgin forest. I never saw so 
many kinds of dwarf palms together as here ; pretty 
miniature species ; some not more than five feet high^ 
