220 
The Indian Bird-Trick. 
48G. Next morning Our Village received further additions to its 
occupants. An old Macusi chief whose settlement lay at the foot of 
Zabang had come with his subordinates and offered a large (luantity of 
tobacco lor sale. It Avas only when their own provisions that they them- 
selves carried Avere consumed that the parties turned back to, their own 
villages, when they would soon be replaced by fresh ones who found just 
as little here. The population of our colony was tlius sul>ject to con- 
tinual change. On the evening of (he 24th November my brother'si divi- 
sion returned from the Cotinga Falls whicli they had only been able to 
reach after overcoming inexpressible difticulties. 
4S7. The provisions brought by the ^erckongs, and the llesh of the 
td\nv were eaten, the cassava field we had bought had l>een robbed of 
its crop and so the perceptible want of victuals forced us to start prepara- 
tions for the return journey as quickly as pos>4ib]e: but before this could 
be done, we had still to try and jirocui-e liy some means or other a small 
supply of bread because, according to what everybody said, we should 
get nothing on the road for the first few days. Our distress worried 
even old Kaikurang who, in company with several of his men. left for 
Canaupang, to enqu/ire whether the fields there could supply any cassava 
roots even if only half ripe. It was certainly im]iossible for him to l»e 
back under five days, and some yams, boiled for soup, remained our only 
nourishment until at last that old saw "Hunger is the best sauce" proved 
itself true, and we found monkey meat delicions: the flesh of the large 
howler was even exceedingly tasty, but that of the Callilhrix even after 
cooking retained the unpleasant smell peculiar to the animal when alive. 
488. The Indian thinks nothing of playing some little trick when 
it comes to a question of gratifying a wish or secnriiig his ]uir])0se. 
They were very keen on several of our articles of trade and yet there was 
nothing more in the animal world that I did not already possess. All 
bii'd-skins that they had otfered me for a cond) on for a knife had to be 
refused because I already possessed them in larger <|uantity than re- 
quired. Finally, they brought me birds with the most beautiful play of 
colour which the huntsmen wanted to make out they had shot in a distant 
mountain valley. The wondrously beautiful creatures also belonged to 
the genus Tanagra or Pipra. On this particular occasion they obtained 
even more than they asked for, because I already believed myself in 
possession of something novel. There was no doubt about its being a 
Tanagra, when all of a sudden on a more careful comparison of the 
feathers, it seemed to have a curiously well-known appearance and I now 
recognised that instead of a new species, I had secured nothing else than 
a monstrosity i)ut together with a skill so extraordinary that not even 
a Chinaman would have been ashamed of it. Tlie Tanagra had been 
doctored with all the kinds of Pipra and Euphonc that were to l)e found 
here, and so transformed into this exceedingly lovely species. The same 
thing had been done with some Pipra and Fringilhi skins. We readily 
forgave the bargainers this masterly carried-out deception, for they 
believed that the skins they had tampered with must have the same 
value for us as the other ones. Judging from the numbers of quartz 
