1850.] UNWILLING SERVANTS. 211 
There were now several families in the village, to wel- 
come their sons and husbands, who had formed our crew ; 
and for some days there was a general drinking and 
dancing from morning to night. During this time, I 
took my gun into the woods, in order to kill a few birds. 
Immediately behind the house were some fruit-trees, to 
which many chatterers and other pretty birds resorted, 
and I managed to shoot some every day. Insects were 
very scarce in the forest; but on the river- side there 
were often to be found rare butterflies, though not in 
siifflcient abundance to give me much occupation. In a 
few days, Senhor L. got a couple of Indians to come and 
hunt for me, and I hoped then to have plenty of birds. 
They used the gravatana, or blow-pipe, a tube ten to 
fifteen feet in length, through which they blov/ small 
arrows with such force and precision, that they will kill 
birds or other game as far off, and with as much cer- 
tainty, as with a gun. The arrows are all poisoned, so 
that a very small wound is sufiicient to bring down a 
large bird. I soon found that my Indians had come at 
Senhor L.’s bidding, but did not much like their task ; 
and they frequently returned without any birds, telling 
me they could not find any, when I had very good 
reason to believe they had spent the day at some neigh- 
bouring sitio. At other times, after a day in the forest, 
they would bring a little worthless bird, which can be 
found around every cottage. As they had to go a great 
distance in search of good birds, I had no hold upon 
them, and was obliged to take what they brought me, 
and be contented. It was a great annoyance here, that 
there were no good paths in the forest, so that I could 
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