90 TlMEHRI. 
the mist which the sun, just rising over the forest, was 
beginning to dissipate, equipped for their work, I had 
frequent opportunity to note at one and the same time 
their physique, dress, and the tools and appliances 
required in the trade, as well as in my intercourse 
with them in the forest. Their garments are few, 
and if they afford little protection from inclement 
weather, they are adapted not to impede their move- 
ments in the forest. They consist usually of a cap 
that fits the skull and forehead tightly ; a thin sing- 
let over the body, also skin-tight ; and a pair of 
osnaburg trousers that reach just below the knees. 
The feet are bare. Around the waist a belt is worn 
which supports the trousers, in which a sailor's sheath- 
knife is fixed, naked ; and dangling by a short piece of 
string is a bamboo tube about 4 inches long and an inch 
thick, plugged and inverted to keep out rain, containing 
matches. In the right hand a cutlass is held by the 
handle, with which the holder, as he stands waiting, 
chops idly at the nearest stump or tree.* Over the left 
shoulder is an axe, on one end of the handle of which are 
strung two or three goobees in which the balata milk is 
carried home from the forest, and on the other end the 
coil of calabash basins used in collecting it. If breakfast 
is taken, it is carried in a coverea tin saucepan which 
hangs by the curved iron-wire handle in one or other 
hand. So equipped the collectors start for their day's 
work, and it is surprising with what rapidity and care, in 
* At every house and settlement on the river every tree near at hand 
— even cocoanuts, coquerites and other palms — has been chipped in idle 
moments, or by novices for practice, in the manner the bullet-trees are 
bled. 
