The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1913-10-01

away because of raya wounds or sick
ness. All the dogs had been killed by
jaguare However, there was plenty
of food and after two days rest we
went back to Llilla and reached Gala
mar in December. From Calamar
went back to my base at San Jose,
sendign maps of the region traversed
to the Royal Geographical society and
to the Colombian government.
Shortly after Christmas, with two
canoes and seven men, started out
for Tolima. Leaving the Cano Grando
in January, descended for five days
to the Rio Ynirida. From this point
we assembled the latter river, and on
February 9Th reached beautiful wa
terfall over 100 feet high, which is a
break between high precipitous hills
running in northeasterly and south
westerly direction.
Country Teeming With Jaguars.
at took two days to portage our big
more were spent in the hardest kind
of work, smashing our way through to
the sources of the Ynirida, which We
reached on Sunday, February 10th.
Three days later we began to descend
to the river The country on both
sides teens with jaguars, tapirs and
anacondas and the river is filled with
rayas. The tapirs were so tame that
they swan around our canoe, curious
and absolutely fearless. Some stood
on the shore whistling at us. | shot
a magnificent speciment of jaguar and
found inside of it whole tapir.
81 carefully examined the stomachs
and intestines of all the animals shot
for traces of disease of helminthet-
ic origin, as some scientists suppose
that all animals suffer from some form
of worm disease This l did at the
suggestion of DR.. Lieper of the Lon
don School of Tropical Medicine.
For fifty days we descended the
Ynirida without seeing sign of hui
man being. We camped on shore at
night and the jaguars and tapirs
would come up and nose us at will.
They showed no fear of men. In this
journey we passed three great randall
es or rapids.
"The first encampment we saw was
a fishing village on the beach. These
Indians had had no contact with
whites, they do not belong to the great
Tupi- Guarani family, which extends
the whole length and breadth of the
Amazon valley, but probably are men,
bers of the great Carib family, which
braced all the Indians of Venezuela.
Guiana and the central, northern and
northeastern portions of Brazil.
Among the Amazons.
"A curious feature of this region
was that the Indians for the most part
not only lived back from the main
streams, but in the villages were
found a great predOminance OF women
who from all we could make out, were
permanent inhabitants of their re-
spective settlements, while the males
were transients. This brings to ones
mind the question whether this may
not be the district whence come the
reports so we'll known on the Amazon
for two centuries of the existence OF
race of women living alone except
at stated periods.
"By a Guiana Indian | was taken
to a settlement of Indians living back
several hours distance from the Pa
panaua, where l found very intelli-
gent native who spoke the Tupi-Gua-
rani language. which would make it
seem that here was the dividing line
between the nation of that name and
the Caribs. The Papanaua Indians
travel from their river to the upper
Icana and have a well made path nine
miles in length. which crosses elevat-
ed land tlanked en- the east and west
by enormous impossible swamps and
lagoons. BY doing lot of medical
work | got this old Indians good will
and he entered my service.
AT this point the Colombians lad
who had become mutinOus through:
exposure and hard work. were SEM
back. The old Indian had promised
to get me natives for my party. but
they did not turn up. so | had to COM
pei him to take us down the river. The
first village we reached contained che
man and fifteen women.
Amazons Provide Smoked Monkey.
From this point we descended four
days through terrific thunderstOrms.
The bed of the river was entirely
lost and we padded through the for
est. Giant trees had been struck by
and hurled across the river.
Our guide had said that on the fourth
day we should arrive at small iga-
rape, which means canoe road, and
sure enough we did. There we found
a settlement of two men, some twenty
women of an ages and any number OF
children They had little or no food.
but gave us smoked monkey to eat
eve had left all our supplies be ::
hind four days up the river and had
with us only our theodolites and chro-
nometers. The two men in the town,
with the old Indian from Papanaua,
and all the women in the village ex
cept two old crones, started out in two
canoes to bring down our freight.
They got back in six days with ev
erything.
with the assistance of the Indians
we worked down the river further.
and soon came up with the curious
festivities which go on during the we.
season on the Icana river. The wOm
en- all paint themselves over the body
and head, wear necklaces of monkey
teeth and triangles of silver, while
the men MT on great heaidreSSeS of