It was
my blood, though - before they got it! Men who hunt the tiger in
cool bravery boiled with indignation before these awful pests, which
stabbed and stung with marvellous persistency, and disturbed
the solitude of nature with their incessant humming. I write the
word incessant advisedly, for I learned that there are several
kinds of mosquitos. Some work by day and others by night. Naturalists
tell us that only the female mosquito bites. Did they take a
particular liking to us because we were all males?
Some of the Indians paint their naked bodies in squares, generally
with red and black pigment. Their huts were in some cases large, but
very poorly constructed. When any members of the tribe are taken sick
they are supposed to be "possessed" by a stronger evil power, and the
sickness is "starved out." When the malady flies away the life
generally accompanies it. The dead are buried under the earth inside
the huts, and in some of the dwellings graves are quite numerous.
This custom of interior burial has probably been adopted because the
wild animals of the forest would otherwise eat the corpse. Horrible
to relate, their own half-wild dogs sometimes devour the dead, though
an older member of the tribe is generally left home to mount guard.
Seeing by the numerous gourds scattered around that they were
drinking chicha, I solicited some, being anxious to taste the
beverage which had been used so many centuries before by the old
Incas.
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