ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
two central tufts of thickly packed trees. We were lucky 
enough to see some coco babento palms, from which we 
shook down dates which were excellent, although some¬ 
what troublesome to eat, owing to the innumerable fila¬ 
ments protecting the central large stone. These filaments 
stuck between one’s teeth, and were most difficult to re¬ 
move. The dates were the size and shape of an ordinary 
English walnut and extremely oily. 
It was a real joy to see fine, healthy trees again, after 
the miserable specimens we had seen of late. Even there, 
too, the powerful trees which emerged from the lower, 
entangled scrub and dense foliage were greatly contorted, 
as if they had gone through a terrific effort in order to 
push their way through to reach the light and air. Liane 
innumerable and of all sizes hung straight or festooned 
from the highest trees or coiled in a deadly embrace round 
their branches like snakes. Nor were they the only 
enemies of trees. Large swellings could be noticed around 
most of the trees, caused by the terrible cupim (termes 
album) or white ants, carrying out their destructive work 
just under the bark. Many indeed were the trees 
absolutely killed by those industrious little devils. 
As we marched through the matto, using the large 
knives freely to open our way, we had to make great 
deviations in our course, now because of a giant jatoba 
lying dead upon the ground, then to give a wide berth to 
a group of graceful akuri palms, with their huge spiky 
leaves. Those palms had great bunches of fruit. We 
were beginning now to find trees with fanlike extensions 
at the roots and base, such as I had frequently met with 
in the forests of Mindanao Island (Philippine Archi¬ 
pelago), where they were called caripapa and nonoko 
trees. The vines or liane were getting interesting, some 
being of great length and of colossal size, twisted round 
like a ship’s cable. 
We rose again to an elevation of 2,600 feet. On 
304 
