310 
The South American Fox. 
924. Extremely tired and exhausted, we got back at nightfall to the 
settlement, upon the return to which I could not sufficiently admire the 
acumen of the Indians for finding the village in amidst this awful wilder- 
ness, we having struck quite another route on the home journey. On un- 
packing my treasures gathered on this excursion I missed the small 
geological collection and upon enquiring for them from the Indian to 
whom they had been entrusted, he maintained, however impossible it was, 
that he had lost them. 
925. My brother had already drawn my attention to the fact that the 
Indians can be prevailed upon to carry stones only with extreme difficulty, 
and generally get rid of them surreptitiously as soon as the opportunity 
offers. One can overload the Indian with baggage of all descriptions and 
he will quietly carry it without a murmur, over mountain and dale — but 
to load him up with stones, that lie considers can only arise from malice: 
I was subsequently forced, if I wanted to add to my geological collections, 
usually to carry the specimens myself. On returning from my excursion 
to the village laden with plants, etc., I was every time greeted with the 
compassionate laughter of the women: but this was increased to the 
utmost when they saw me pulling stones out of my pockets : in short, 
from their point of view I was and remained the most extraordinary 
and curious creature they had ever seen. 
92G. The forest streams in the neighbourhood of Nap pi must harbour 
a huge quantity of fish because often a single family brought home more 
than a thousand specimens of Erythrinus unitaeniatus, which they had 
caught in a short while by poisoning the water. It was surprising to me 
that all the catch consisted of this particular fish, the favourite resort of 
which must at all events be these forest rivulets whereby, during the 
rainy season, it may be brought into the flooded savannahs. The settle- 
ment, as soon as such a wealth of supplies was brought 
in, offered an unusually lively picture, because now was 
the time to save the huge catch as quickly as possible 
from getting spoilt. All hands were occupied : yonder several 
set up and bound together a boucan, while some ran to fetch dried wood 
for the fire, and others again cut the bigger fish to pieces so that they 
could be smoked through and through all the better, or else put them in 
large pots over the fire. The names of the different fish were generally 
taken from some sort of resemblance which some portion or’ it had with 
another animal. ,To great astonishment and our greater jov, I had 
accidentally discovered in the virgin forest immediately bordering on 
Nappi several citron and lemon trees of immense size, the branches of 
which were completely bent under the weight of their fruit in all stages 
of development: some industrious Indian or other must have planted 
them there. This article of luxury, which we used as vinegar, made our 
fish dishes doubly tasty, and as I knew, moreover, with what delight this 
glorious find would be hailed in Pirara, I had already despatched to our 
friends there on the day of discovery several baskets of the fruit, for 
which on my return I received everybody’s thanks. From then on, 
hardly a week passed but the Indians did not bring this much-prized 
article of trade to market, 
