The Dogs Eat My Water-Haas Skeleton. 
227 
also soon distingiiisliecl on Humirida tlie spot on its steep mountain wall 
that we liad climbed: we liad already travelled round it, for it now lay 
several miles on our North-East. 
503. Amidst huge blocks of sandstone we made the descent into the 
valley of the Mnyang, and soon, on looking back, there was nothing to 
be seen but rocky boulders tilted and jumbled one on top of the other, 
when we finally struck the thick rank forest that reached up to the 
Kinotaima slope. The forest had assumed another character: the 
Thihnndia , Ternstronvia, Andromeda, ClctJira, l^ohraUa' and their allies 
had disappeared, and better known forms of gigantic size again spread 
their shady limlis over our path. After crossing se-veral tributaries of 
the Muyang, and dead tired, we reached Yawangra, the lonely settlement 
at the foot of the Hnmirida, towards evening: it was here that we had 
left Sororena-'s wife. Imt she. althongh not yet confined, had already 
returned to Pir-ara with the three absconders whose sense of honour had 
been hurt at Eoraima. 
504. On striking camp in the morning and wanting to rep-^ck the 
skeleton of the TTydrocliaerus that I had tied to a tree the night before, 
T found that it had disappeared: the hungry dogs had swallowed \i 
during the night. 
505. In Yawangra Village, that we reached on the morning of the 
10th December, we fonnd on this occasion not only Indians sufPerinj; 
with eye disease, but also a shortage of cassava and were straightway 
advised to turn more to the South, because in that direction we should 
find a thickly populated settlement: we followed this advice all the 
more willingly because the many days' starvation was still fairly fresH 
in our memory. The rank forest that we came across again showed us 
giant trees of Bomhar and CfnroUnea, which yielded nothing in size to 
those on the Takutn. The Inxuriant Phrnacoftpcfrmne, that reached a 
height of from 40 to 50 feet here, npon the linrsting of their capsnles 
with a lond report, spluttered their rine seeds like hail upon the thick 
leaves, and then down on to our heads. PofissJfJorae with brilliant 
red flowers, Coffoaccar, like Pfiifchofria . with orange-coloured ones, and 
CepJinMis with blue blossoms, entwined themselves nn the slim colossal 
colnmns and forced their way throngh the tops of the giants striving 
to reach the heavPTis, or hnn."* in light festoons down from the 
widely outstretched branches. The soil consisted of a greasy loam mixed 
with sand, like what T found almost evervwherp m the savannah oases. 
50(>. Onr nrocpssion continninrr with even sten in T-ndian file must 
have come ncvoss sopip obstacle ahead — it stonnpd. Fnll of fnVht I 
hurried nn: the ones in the lead stood in front of a brown 12 to 1(1 foot 
brond movincf l>niid. for the thicklv-throiifved host of wandert'nir ants that 
was iiist then blocking onr way looked' just like that and nothing else. 
To wait nntil it had passed wonld take too long: it had to be crossed 
with a smart run and some long jnmns. Covered np to the kupes with the 
now angered insects, we got over the dense mass, and yet, in spite of 
onr squeezing them with our hands and trampling them with our feet, 
we could not escape the painful bites of the irritated creatnres. If we 
Europeans came out of the ordeal with our skins whole, the poor 
02, 
