166 
A Strong Scent of Onions. 
fxnvei- to give. Our Indians who had gone on in advance liad informed 
liim of onr plan« the pni poi t of wliich lie knew how to wuik up and take 
exquisite advantage of in the most picturesque and daring similes until, 
at the end of quite half an hour, he elosed his address and shook hands 
with us. The statement that the South American Indians do not possess 
the gift of oratory 1 have certainly not found confirmed in the very least 
among the (luiana tribes. On the other hand I have listened at their 
gatherings to many speeches that not only as regards the keen, 
most surprising and striking imaginative comparisons, but also the 
healthiness of mind that constituted their nucleus, were far superior to 
the very large majority of those of (nir German extempore speakers: and 
yet their subject nmtter had to be imparted to me through a third person. 
Thi'ough the open do(»r of the house, before which this Indian Chrysostom 
liad received us, we saw assembled the remaining villagers y^ho, on com- 
pletion of the harangue, also came out and gave us gi eeting: the greater 
number of the men were away travelling. There was no trace of any 
other food to be seen than some heaps of palm-fruits. Qnr stay was 
consequently just as short here as at Yawangra and particularly so 
because we had been assured l)y our host in the course of his speech that 
we miglit reach before sundown another settlement the occupants of 
which had reaped a l>ig harvest of maize. Without being asked, 
Chrysostom attached himself with wife and chihlren to our party: his 
step-father, an Arekuna, with whom he had settled down, remained 
behind. 
398. However trying the continuation of our journey proved to our 
tired feet, they nevertheless had to submit to it: the denmnds of hunger 
were too strong, ßilent and sullen, we proceeded towards the North 
West over a number of tributaries of the Muyang, through wooded oases 
and over green savannah plains. In the former our noses were 
repeatedly worried to-day by a strong onion-like smell: from what the 
Indians said, this came from a creeper, but botanically it was not known 
to us. (Sect. 1,009.) Judging from the ccmimonly noted musk-odour 
which our companions referred to a snake that crossed the path, this 
oasis must apparently be full of snakes. 
399. It was a long whDe since our ranks had been as broken as they 
proved to-day. We w^ere making our way to the rallying point, like a 
scattered army. It being the guides' business to bar the wrong path at 
every crijss-road with broken-off twigs so that w^e Europeans as well as the 
Pirara and Torong-Yauwise residents who were straggling still farther 
behind might be jointly and severally warned from going astray, we were 
all the more surprised to find, on coming to the first of such double-paths, , 
that this precaution had been neglected. Where to go now? We received I 
no answer to our shouting: we searched for tracks in vain, and in good 
faith that w^e were on the right pad, we crept forward, and after a long 
time followed it into a field with cassava not yet matured. We had tired 
our feet for an hour to no purpose and now had to retrace our steps. | 
Before reaching its starting-point the forest resounded with the shrill 
shouting of the careless leaders who, on emerging into the open and 
seeing no one following now for the first time realised their negligence 
mä were hurrving back to Jqok for us. 
