Evening star., 1925-09-13

toiling up rugged mountain trail.
| on muleback and my guide easily
setting the pace afoot. A rocky niche
was my bed that night on the crest OF
the range. There. in the morning, |
rose to witness an amazing sunrise
spectacle.
The eastern sky was aglow with
rose and orange hues, while the high
craEs around me were warmly golden
under the first rays of dawn. Down
beneath, dull green in the somber
twilight of the lowla nds. billowed
limitless eNpanse of sleeping forests,
unbrol<en except in the distance where
the pearI-gray ribbon of the Araguaya
lay edged with morning fog.
And then-daylight seemed to rush
suddenly down over the silent valleys,
and the whole jungle burst abruptly
into clamorous life. A far-echoing
clatter rose to my ears: the voices of
countless monkeys and parrots ming
ling with other animal cries in a very
bedlam OF noise that Shrilled ever
higher to a weird crescendo. Then,
after this brief wild paean to the
mounting sun-god. the awakened for
est lulled down again to the vague.
unworldly murmur of a tropic day.
Impressed as if by some vast pagan
ceremonial | turned again westward.
u
for four days in the jungle. following
half-oblitera ted tribal trail. AT
night | slept in a hammock. while
taguars groWled about the camp fire.
At dawn my guide served coffee, with
delicious "crea m"--the milk which
he gathered In a coconut shell from
the Brazilian Cow tree"
The third day. however. he was
hstless and complained of weakness,
1t soon became apparent that vam-
pire bat had feasted on his blood dur
ing the night. The cold wind with
which these lowering creatures fan
the wound through which they suck
makes their attack imperceptible to
a sleeping man. | luckily escaped
their unplea SAINT attentions through
out the trip. but shook many hairy
spider from my boots before mount
ing in the morning, and / and the
mule We're often stung to madness by
swarms of hornets.
Making slow progress because of
the Indians weakness. We passed a
low mound of earth beside little
stream. Here. | learned, a Brazilian
wanderer had recently been slain by
his own guide. who had then cheer
fully departed for the Xingu with his
former masters gun.
T IFE, IL seems. means next to moth
- ing throughout interior Brazil
The natives. If tempted by booty and
left unmatched, will kill you for your
possessions as carelessly as you
would slap a mosquito; while the
Brazilian settlers all go armed and
carry on many a ruthless feud sug-
gesting Kentucky at its worst.
q a "a
that shortly before the last of a no.
torious Kentucky feudist family was
killed in Breathitt County. another
scion of the same stock bit the dust
of a Brazilian trail. His family
nemesis had followed him even In
his South American exile.
In trivial quarrel he had shot a
Matto Crosse rancher, and carried off
his ear in a cigarette case. fmitat-
ing one of the quaint customs of the
country. The Bra azilian's friends,
however. had promptly wreaked ven-
geance on the kentuckian, using their
favorite double barreled. muzzle-
loading horse pistols In the fatal fray.
That recollection came wildly to
my mind beside the grave of my
predecessor on the Xingu trail Next
day we left the jungle and emerged
on an endless grassy plain dotted
with trees and sparkling with thou
sands of crystals in the sun. There
the Brazilian ostrich (the emu of
cross word puzzle fame) moved
gawkily through tall grasses and
herds of wild pig stared belligerently
at us from their feasting place
beneath the nut trees, while graceful
deer fed in panic from the rivers as
we crossed.
Through the vast, pea ceful silence
of this uncharted plain we moved for
six days, coming finally to signs of
human life again-a village of Caipo
Indians on the banks of a small river
the Rio Branca, tributary to the
Xingu.
To the north of us now lay the
haunts of the Gaviaos. tall. fat Indi-
ans who have been so abused by rub
ber barons that they kill white in
vaders on sight, firing viciously- barbed
arrows from 8-foot bows. Their ter
ritory runs eastward, parallel to the
trail / had traversed, back to the very
edge of the settlements along the Ara
guaya. So that there In Brazil pure
savagery is found rampant within a
stones throw, as it were, of the church
and stores and stea mboat wharves of
a civilized river town.
To the south of our Rio Rranca
camp also lay hostile tribes. the muir
derous Mundurucus, who welcome
strangers with open arms and cut off
their heads to make sure they pay
long visit. AS had happened on the
River Of Death, the friendly India MS
now refused TO accompany me further
in my search for the Martyrs Gold
Mine, asserting that to venture much
farther either northward or southwark
promised sure death.