120 
Three Bays in a Mosquito HelI. 
us fear that the unfortunate fellow; had met his death. We had already 
turned the corial round Avhen we heard Aiyukante yelling with rage at 
the Indians still standing on the top, Avhieh convinced us that he could 
not have suffered much serious damage from his Salto mortale. Wheu 
the poor devil was brought over to camp with the next l)oatload he looked 
the picture of misery. Several sawari-palm fronds tliat he had struck 
up against had dug their sharp prickles into his breast muscles, and 
these were only extracted with a good deal of pain. He swore that he 
had been struck in the back, and puslied over by one of the Indians. It 
was a real puzzle to see how lightly he had got over his accident con- 
sidering that he was still carrying his 60 lb. load. My brother had 
reached camp just a little before us, and the first words of consolation 
with wliich Fryer, greeted us, after the upset over Aiyukaute's mislui]) 
had quietened down, were tliat he and the Indians had been alniosl 
worried to death with mosquitoes, and that consequently they, as well as 
the larger nural)er of our party, had slung tlieir hammocks in the high 
branches of the Mararen tree as was confirmed by the "Matti saponteng 
Y Good-night, friend)'' which now rang out from it. To spend the night 
dangling so far up in the air seemed too dangerous for us, and while the 
women lay on the ground and covered themselves with sand, we wrapped 
oiir-sclves in our hammocks as liglitly as ]>ossilile. Fryer's words were 
only too true. During our previous 8-day stay here we had not found a 
single one of these wretched little pests, but now their number was 
legion, and tlie moonlight had made them even more bloodthirsty. 
20(5. In the morning, the first thing to meet my gaze was the Mararen 
tree covered with a regular snowy mass of blossom, around Avhich 
thousauds upon thousands of Hyme'noptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptcra 
were fluttering, and the Indians who were swarming down it from their 
airy lodging. As in Pirara, so also here, in the savannah close by, the 
rainy season had called into being a number of plants hitherto unknown 
tome: among those ^particularly conspicuous was a new Malroeca, 
Fiu/osia f/uiancu'<iK Klotzscli, as well as the Te'plirosia toxicaria Pers. 
<-alled Yari-o-conalli by the Indians and used by them for poisoning the 
Vari-o fish {TTj/))OStoiHi(s or Doras?) which is immune to the milky juice 
<»f tlie Haiary iJjonchocnrpuH dmsiflorKs) . In the wooded country 
bordering the Pirara bloomed numberless trees which would appear to 
be Oufra acar-iaefolia Benth., 0. iiniltijKfja DeC. and several Caesal puta . 
297. Since all our craft proved too heavily laden, we had! to spentl 
tliree days in this IMosquito Hell repairing one of the boats tliat we had 
already found on the Takutu trip, and on; the forenoon of tlie third 
gladly welcomed the coffee-brown waters of the Mahn, along which our 
little squadron would be borne quickly to its mouth. A very interesting 
sight that engaged our attention' along the banks of this river, just as 
on the Takutu, were the lofty trees with the large nests of the Jahiru 
(Afi/ctcria amcricana) . It was the breeding season. Although I subse- 
quently found these nests in the forest oases and along the hea\dly 
timbered banks of the savannah streams, I never saw so many of them 
as on the Mahu and Takutu. This huge bird builds both in trees and 
npon rocky pinnacles, but in either case it chooses an inaccessible spot 
