Marvellous Self-Control of the Indian. 
245 
their arms in attitudes of supplication and entreaty, to induce the awful 
apparition to leave the tent of heaven so that they might not perish 
under its influence. The Macusis called the comet Ca-poiesima, i.e., 
Fire Cloud, or Wae-inopsa, i.e.^ Sun that darts its rays behind: the 
Arekunas on the other hand Wa-taima, and the Wapisianas Capichi, i.e., 
in both cases, the Spirit of the Stars. The open savannah in which we 
happened to be w^as an unusually satisfactory point of observation. 
When we went outside the house of an evening to watch the gloriou;? 
sight, the temporary inhal)itants of Pirara gathered round us every time 
and enquired anxiously what the Paranaghieris thought about +ho Wae- 
inopsa and what name they applied to the fire-cloud. IT]> till the 20th 
March the comet shone in all its beauty, but from that date on it lost 
H-ore and more in extent, and became ever more dull and vapory. 
.560, During these days of general fright and exciteinent for the 
Indians, I was offered the oppoi'tunity of admiring the almost n\arvellous 
self-control of the Indians and that too in a boy of at most 12 years of 
age. It was on one of those hot days in the dry season when one searches 
the cupola of heaven for a little dark cloud in vain, when the lower layers 
of air are seen in continual oscillation and all objects except, possibly, 
distant ones, have taken on the same movement, that we saw some 
Indians hurrying to the village and leading a boy in their midst. As 
they approached the settlement they hastened to our 'quarters and asked 
for help : the lad's whole body had been torn and flayed in a really 
terrible way with lighted gunpowder. The body, the face, in short, every 
bit of him was covered with curdled and partly already-dried blood-clots: 
the place where the eyes ought to be could only be recognised by a 
small depression of the swollen face : the whole appearance of the poor 
yict'm of imprudence was indeed heartrending. The people had visited 
lis some days before, and in exchange for their pro\isions had asked and 
received a pound of gunpowder. On the morning that they proposed 
poing to hunt they*had placed the tin case containing the explosive close 
to the fire on which their breakfast was heing prepared and around 
which they squatted: a spark lighted the exposed powder which thus 
blew up the boy into this pitiable condition. Although TJmata village! 
was eight miles distant from Pirara, the father and some friends had set 
out immediately after the accident^ with the unfortunate boy, and had 
led him under the broiling sun and through the open savannah to seek' 
assistance from ns. When one reckons what the pains of the wounded' 
body must have lieen by themselves alone, and then the torments of th-^ 
scorching sun, so must it indeed sound extraordinary enough when I 
maintain that not a sob passed the lips of the sufferer. Quiet and 
resigned, without any signs of ]>aSn whatever, the blinded youth stood 
before us. The only relief we could afford him was to anoint him regu« 
larly with oil, which we fortunately still possessed in sufficient qiiantity. 
Next morning the father went back to Umata and left his lad for further 
treatment which continued on the same lines. For ten days the poor 
youngster lay completely blind in the hammock slung for him : on the 
morning of the second day after recovering his sight, he had disappeared 
and returned home without having given us even a thanks or a good-bye, ^ 
