DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS 
while they were there, the dogs ate up all the toucinho , 
and the result was that the men had to return disappointed. 
There was plenty of game, especially wild pig and veado 
(deer). 
Alcides had a smattering of botany, which was a great 
danger to the company. He knew, he thought, the uses, 
medicinal or otherwise, of all plants, herbs, and fruit, wild 
or not wild. This, in addition to the greediness of the 
men, who, although actually gorged with food, were al¬ 
ways willing to devour anything else they found, led 
once or twice, as we shall see, to the poisoning of himself 
and his companions so dangerously as not only to cause 
terrible internal pains, hut to bring them all actually to 
death’s door. 
I never got poisoned myself, as I generally took 
good care to watch the effects of those experiments upon 
my men first. Then also, in my many years of explora¬ 
tion, I had learnt only too well to beware of even the 
most seductive tropical plants and fruit. Notwithstand¬ 
ing all this, Alcides was really wonderful at turning out 
pleasant-tasting beverages from the stewed bark or leaves 
of various trees, and of these decoctions, in which 
additional quantities of sugar played an important part, 
my men and myself drank gallons upon gallons. Many 
of those drinks had powerful astringent qualities and had 
severe effects upon the bladder, but some were indeed 
quite good and innocuous. 
During the night I observed a most perfect lunar halo, 
the circle, close to the moon, displaying a curious, 
yellowish red, outer fringe. 
Since leaving the Araguaya, we had been bothered a 
good deal nightly by the heavy dew, which absolutely 
soaked everything, made all our rifles and axes and iron 
implements rusty, and the tents and saddles and baggage 
considerably heavier for the animals to carry, owing to 
the moisture they had absorbed. In the early morning 
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