Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-05

wild and revengeful, and frequently attack
the cowboys at such times If they can catch
them on foot.
Tens OF Thousands of Ant Hills.
One of the queerest things to me in this
country is the ant. 1t is the only thing
that turns Paraguay upside down. 1t is the
only busy thing in the country, and you see
evidences of it's work everywhere. There
are fields here covered with thousands of ant
hills. Some hills are as big as a haycock
and a yard in diameter. Others are not as
large as a sugar loaf. They are red or
brown, according to the soil of which they
are made. These hills spot this landscape as
the burial mounds do that of China. They
are found In the cultivated lands and in
the pasture fields, where you see long-horned
cattle eating the grass among them. Some
times they are only a few feet apart and
sometimes fifteen and twenty and more.
Each Of these hills is an ant village. 1t is
an ant catacomb populated by thousands Of
ants. There are as many ant works below
the surface as above it, and when a field is
to be cultivated the first work is to get rid
OF the ants. The only way to do this is to
dig out the ant hills and burn them. Then
only can the field be plowed. These ants
burrow into the houses. They make their
way up through the brick floors and build
sand hills there so that a woman may go
to bed with a house as clean as a Dutch
kitchen and awake the next morning to find
her floors covered with great cones of sand
in which are thousands of ants.
The average country house, however, has
no floors except the earth. Nineteenth OF
the houses you see outside the city are huts
of poles, which are woven together and tied
with Withns nr afrinuu Thau hnxa rnAfa
OF thatch, which extend out at one side or
end, forming an open shed or room. Often
the shed is larger than the closed part, for
the latter is little more than the sleeping
place for the family. Many such houses
have orange trees about them and palm
trees waving over them. AS you pass them
you see that some have red walls and some
walls OF brown or white. At first you think
the red ones are painted. but soon see that
the soil with which they are chinked is
red. This is the color OF the best land of
Paraguay. The contrast of this rich red
and the soft velvet gray Of the thatch is
harmonious, and the houses are exceedingly
picturesque. They are much like the coun-
try houses Of Japan in this respect.
The larger farm houses sometimes have
two rooms with a matched roof connect
ing them and an open space in the center.
Such a one is that on the big farm OF DR..
Charles Chase, a Boston man, who keeps
a drug store in the town OF villa Rica as
a means of making money, and follows
photography as an amusement.
Life I'm the Interior.
The Paraguayans are very hospitable.
You can call at any hut in the country and
you will be made perfectly at home. You
may see a lot of naked babies and some
naked children who are considerably older
than babies, for in the back districts boys
and girls up to the age of IA often go naked.
If you can speak the Guarani language
the Indian tongue which is in common use
among the lower classes-you will find the
people quite intelligent, though exceedingly
simple and Ignorant OF your world, You
will be given a cigar to smoke and will be
asked to take part in the puchero or boiled
beef and vegetables which constitute the
usual meal. Your food will be cooked out
OF doors and the women may pound the
corn to powder in a wooden mortar before
they cook it for you. When you first enter
the hut you will probably be offered a glass
Of brandy called cana. Every one drinks
and every village has its brandy disillery.
Indeed. it is estimated that every man,
woman and child in Paraguay could drink