24 
Botanical Reminiscences. 
the Lecythis Ollaria, Lin., in which the tobacco leaves are 
wrapt np like a cigar and smoked, all of which articles 
are required by an Indian when travelling, and are generally 
packed in a watertight basket. 
Although it was well known that the Indian, when he 
undertakes a journey, partly from his peculiar indolence, to 
which the wife must submit, never leaves his wife at home, 
we had notwithstanding made the agreement with the carriers 
and guides, except our principal interpreters, Sororeng and 
Aiyucande, a piai or medicine man, and a most influential 
Indian amongst the whole Macusi tribes, none of them should 
take their wives and children, to prevent the increase of the 
party, which was already large enough. 
When the medicine man arrived at our hut with his 
daughter and Baruh, his future second wife, a fine girl with 
long ringlets, who had a deep rooted aversion to her future 
husband, he was followed by several Indians with their wives 
and children, with bag and baggage ready for the journey. If 
we intended to proceed on the journey, we had to put on a 
pleasant face to an unpleasant necessity ; to prevent the 
women from accompanying their husbands, would have insured 
the desertion of the men as a consequence. 
When the men, wives, and children assembled before our 
huts, they, of course, were followed by their dogs, which by 
their barking, showed their pleasure at accompanying the 
party. Fortunately the inclination of the dogs was in opposi- 
tion to those of their masters, of which fact the dogs were 
soon convinced, by receiving a sound thrashing and repeated 
volleys of stones. 
After having settled all matters, the party, consisting of 
forty-nine persons, began to move on, the women forming 
the rearguard. The road leading tov/ards the savanna in a 
westerly direction, brought us, after half an hour, to the 
banks of the Pirara, at a place where it flows from the Lake 
Amucu, and where the river was so shallow that we could 
ford it without much trouble. The pretty shrubs of Helicteres 
qua%umaefoliay Humb. and BonpL, covered with their scarlet 
flowers, which grew on the banks of the Pirara, were soon 
left behind us. Our direction was now a north-westerly one. 
With the altered formation of the savanna a change in the 
soil took place also ; the clay, which in general forms the 
substratum, lost its red color, the round glittering fragments 
of quartz, which attain a reddish color by being mixed with 
