Evening star., 1928-12-09
Kngo fAeX Iron
Travellers Face Are

| the possibilities of the development of
the rubber and nut business by North
American capital"
So during my trip from the Caraja
villages down the Araguaya to the out
post hamlet of Conceicao turned west
ward into the hinterland. A negro
rubber gatherer of Conceicao, former
lieutenant in the Brazilian army,
warned me against the excursion.
You may end in the troncos
(stocks)," he said. And he told how
escaping poems from the Kings domain
and unwanted intruders are captured
and tormented numerically.
Word of these punishments has
spread far and wide throughout the
jungle. I found that my canoemen
knew the terror all too we'll to make
the trip I contemplated, and I was
forced to get two half-wild Indians
wandering Caraja warrior and his
squaw-to handle the canoe.
x* X x
A LII this territory in the rainy season
is widely inundated by overfiowing
rivers. Strange interlocking waterways
open up through vast regions of the
jungle, so that it is possible to make
extensive inland canoe trips, padding
by the hour beneath the green ceiling
of the forest through gladeS decked
with Towering vines. Occasionally dur
ing the first day of our excursion we
passed the flinsy huts of groups of nut
gatherers, perched on hummocks and
half surrounded by the rising water.
Then the empty silence of the jungle
closed around us.
One evening we emerged from shall
INrx, tNaxy inf n CT a. c
dusk fell 1 sighted the red glow of
smoking fires. We pulled toward the
shore and a ragged group of sullen men
came down to stare Curiously at our
approach. All but one were clad simply
in tattered trousers. 1t was a rubber
camp, in the charge of Stocky mus
tached capunga-himSelf more pictur-
eSquely clothed. He wore black slouch
hat with an enormous brirn and a
shiny snakeskin wound around the
crown. In his tooled-leather belt were
two muzzle-loading pistols of antiquat-
ed make, each more than foot long
and silver mounted. Besides the pis-
tolls, his belt held cleaning knife with
an 18-inch blade.
Before we had landed realized that
this was just what had come to see
"a rubber camp in action. I offered
The capunga was only partially salts
fled, but he observed the traditional
Brazilian hospitality and offered me
such food and shelter as they had. The
men resumed their work.
They were rolling the days collection
of latex into balls of rubber that later
would be sent down the Araguaya to
Para. Each gatherer has a definite
route through the jungle, including
about hundred widely scattered rub
ber trees. When he taps a tree he
fastens to 1t cup made of a nut shell.
Into this the latex. a white, viscous
f1uid,a trickles From the shells it is
poured into buckets and taken to the
base camp.
Here, at night, the rubber is prepared
over fires that give off heavy clouds of
smoke. watched the process with in
terest. Two men were turning long
stick slowly over each fire. A third
man was pouring the latex in a thin,
steady stream onto the turning stick
The thick smoke enveloped the latex,
which was hardening and darkening
into rubber as 1t accumulated in an
irregular ball.
Over breakfast, the morning after
my arrival I became more communi-
cative to the bearded man whom l
took for the oVerSeer. He was short,
fat and swarthy, with a heavy mouth
and cruel, shifty eyes which flickered
with increased suspicion when I asked
directions to the jungle mansion of the
King of the Xingu.
Hes gone away. Why do you want
to meet him?" he asked.
Inadvertently I mentioned Dr. Nor
beck's name. My bearded vis-a-vis eyed
me coldly. I began to perceive that he
suspected me of being an agent of the
civilized powers to the south, come to
check up on the cruelties practiced in
this rubber wilderness.
You can't see him." he said at last.
''He sees nobody" And he changed the
subject, offering to show me grove of
Brazil nut trees, where some of his men
were collecting nuts.
X X X X
BEFORE we started he left me for
~ moment and spoke to one of the
poems, who vanished into the jungle
We followed and came upon group of
huge trees.
Several poems were moving about un-
derneath the tall. slender trees, collect