Women are Never Seen Unemployed. 
287 
nised at a distance of several paces by the olfactory nerves, so can the 
Macusi be distinguished by the strong-smelling resins of Humirium 
floribundum Mart., and Amyris ambrosiaca Willd. with which the red 
paint is mixed. They also permit no hair to grow upon any other portion 
of the body except the head, every other bit of sprouting “down” being 
extracted with a couple of mussel shells. Only a few strong-minded 
ones seem to have overcome their prejudice, for I at least, saw an 
individual here and there who had given his miserable growth of beard 
a chance. In their own eyes it was an ornament upon which they prided 
themselves not a little. On the spot whence the eyebrows have been 
removed, they generally paint a red or black conspicuous line. 
813. One will never see women unemployed; their work in the field 
completed they immediately take up the simple cotton spindle, and spin 
the finest thread in which one might search in vain for a flaw, and 
according to its requirements, two or more such threads 
are rolled together. After the cotton is gathered and the picking 
and cleaning completed, they always beat it before use for some time with 
sticks, whereby it becomes looser and is less tightly held together. 
814. To be sure, I have hurried somewhat ahead of the times in my 
experiences, and therefore return to the run of the day that provided us, 
in addition to a fruitless jaguar chase, with an uncommonly funny 
intermezzo. The general hilarity that ruled the whole settlement was 
suddenly interrupted by a woman's cry for help, “Teikusi, Teikusi 
( Jaguar, jaguar) !” that rang over to us from a house situate on the edge 
of the forest a considerable distance away from the others. Everybody 
got in a state of alarm ; the men seized their weapons and all of us 
rushed to the house where the trembling woman informed us that just 
as she was looking up from her work she had seen a big jaguar watching 
her from the door, but which turned tail upon her shouting for assistance. 
Everybody with a weapon now hurried along the track, distinctlv 
recognisable, without however anyone succeeding in finding the animal. 
Naturally a number of cases in which the jaguar with uncommon bold 
ness had fetched out its favourite dainty, a dog, etc., from within an 
occupied house, formed for a long while the topic of conversation which, 
through the medium of Sororeng, was carried on between us and the 
Indians. However keen the jaguar is in tracking dogs, it nevertheless 
runs as soon as these take up the chase in company with men, and 
generally escapes pursuit by climbing a tree. One of the hunters who 
had followed the jaguar's tracks a bit farther than the others brought 
me, as a spoil, a howler monkey which completely differed in colour from 
all the others in that, instead of a brilliant yellow pelt, this was a dark 
brown ; if it is not a new species, it is nevertheless a rather striking 
variety. 
815. While searching in one of his boxes for something, my brother 
came across a six-chambered revolver that he had forgotten all about, 
although he had bought it in London with the intention of taking it into 
the Interior. Without l>eing noticed by anyone he quickly loaded it, and 
got all the Indians sent for, as the white people wanted to have target 
practice and they were to decide who was the best shot. As everyone 
