A pRECAiiious Night’s Lodging, 
167 
hastening to their haven of rest, the forest now re-echoed in all directions 
with the never-resting blows of the axes, the shouting of our boatlmnds, 
and the laughter of the Indians accompanying us. A large number of 
boa constrictors seemed to have chosen the banks of the stream for their 
childbed, for a large number of their five to six foot long and correspond- 
ingly thick young brood were encamped upon the trees bending over the 
creek, so that on striking the axe into the trunk of such an one, and 
making it shake, several would fall into the corial and terrify the Negroes 
so much as to make them jump yelling into the water. This dread gave 
the Indians plenty of sport, and as often as they noticed a snake upon an 
overhanging tree, they also struck the branches with their paddles and 
drove the frightened creatures down into the midst of the shivering Blacks, 
573. The sun had long sunk below the horizon, and yet we searched 
in vain for a dry spot where we could sling our hammocks and camp the 
night. We had already made up our minds for the inevitable, and to spend 
the night in the narrow confines of the corial, when one of the Indians 
told me that a lire must be burning close ahead somewhere as he could 
smell the smoke. All the other Indians strained their olfactory nerves 
to corroborate the happy tidings, by similar observation, but in vain- — • 
the first, man who reported a fire in the neighbourhood stood alone in his 
convictions. Discouraged over the disappointment we continued our 
journey, when suddenly a general cry of joy afforded the ridiculed 
Indian absolute confirmation of his sharp sense of smell, for at some 
distance ahead blue columns of smoke between the dark!- green palm- 
fronds indicated the presence of Man. On nearing the spot, we dis- 
tinctly recognised three people, and in them our old acquaintance, chief 
Marawari of Honobo with two of his wives who were then on their wav 
to Georgetown. The fire nevertheless was not burning on dry ground 
but flamed up from an old tree-trunk, while the three hammocks were 
slung up over the water surface on to trees standing close to one another, 
an expedient to which we also had to have recourse, whereby the Indians 
had to carry us on their shoulders to our roosts. Our night’s lodging 
swaying over the water made it impossible for me to skin the Boa that day 
and by next morning the specimen had gone completely putrid, an occur- 
rence that T all the more deplored because T never met an example of 
equal size again. When on the following morning A\e woke shivering 
with cold and our teeth chattering, we found our hammocks and clothes 
quite wet from the damp. 
574. In company with Marawari Avho knew the complicated course 
of the channel AA'ell enough, we continued our journey and passed the 
Waburina and the Iterite. The outward hindrances to our progress 
were indeed slighter than the day before, but in their stead the strike 
amongst the obstinate Negroes that we had been afraid of in Warina, now 
came to a head. Marawari was just as short of provisions as we were and 
had already shared his supplies with us the evening before. With the 
flooding over of the banks not only had the game drawn back to the 
heights in the interior, but the fish now revelling on the many fruits, etc., 
to be found in between the forest trees, took no notice of the baits cast 
to them. EA'en the small Piprn which still showed up here and there as 
