Evening star., 1962-04-18

about the size of a Chesapeake
Bay blue crab-raiSed an open
claw and fought off a twig
poked toward him. Smitty said
he would have been good to
eat. His brown shell would turn
white in cooking.
/ Except for some brilliant red
and yellow SunburSt flowers,
the jungle floor was generally
bare of beauty. 1t was a place
of death; few things live on
the floor of the jungle; they fall
there when they die. 1t was a
mat of dead leaves and
branches, and a slight. not al
together unpleasant smell Of
corruption hung about.
But high in the trees, where
the sun could penetrate, there
was beauty. Sprays Of orchids
hung in profusion, sometimes
hundreds of blooms to q single
stalk. Higher In the boughs
were clusters Of pink and law
ender flowers.
Miniature Waterfall
' From the spring where We
! spotted the hand crab we haC
, been following a little ril
| downhill. Smitty motioned 8
halt and beckoned to me tc
, listen. There was a splashing
sound, and we soon came upon
a cliff about 20 feet high. The
, little rill plunged over a min
iature waterfall. and splashed
into a pool at the bottom,
Round, apparently deep, and
fringed with vegetation, the
pool was remindful of the sa-
cred cenote into which the
Maya priest threw the scream
ing sacrificial princess.
We were blocked here from
further downhill progress, and
scrambled up a spur of the hill
to seek an alternate way down.
Getting hungry?" Smitty
asked. We'll have a good
lunch in just a little while"
The slope got a little easier,
and we began to chat again. !
asked about tree I had heard
of that is so full of internal
tension-just like a city-dweller
that when you hit it with a
machete, it explodes. Smitty
said only certain, very big, trees
do that, and only at certain
times of the year. But they can
be dangerous. he said.
Smitty showed how to get a
drink of pure water in the
| jungle. He found a woody vine
! about three inches thick and
, with four licks of his machete
, hacked a section about three
. feet long out of it. He examined
the cut ends-"Got to make
sure there's no white sap
: Then he put an end of the
f vine to his mouth, drank
) briefly, and passed it to me.
Steady Trickle
t Surprisingly, the vine did moi
! drip water by the drop, it re.
, leased it in a steady. sub.
; stantial trickle. I held the vint
up and drank.
I cannot recall a drink o.
water that tasted better. There
, must have been pint of watel
/ trapped in that three-foot seq.
! ment. It was considerably coolel
than the jungle air, and hac
, just the slightest hint of {
, delicate woody flavor.
, Shortly afterward we broke
+ out of the underbrush onto tht
! bank of a creek. At the heigh
of the rainy season the creel
fills its bed to a width of 81
, feet and a depth of 10. Blu
now, in the dry season, it wa
, only about 10 feet wide ant
i a foot deep. Most of the bottom
, was of small pebbles and sant
which glittered. Smitty salt
there is gold in the sand-golt
that could be panned out
anyone wanted to go to tn,
$ trouble. I recalled that gold
t more than anything else, wa
2 the lure that took Balbo'
: through this region four ant
: half centuries ago.
? Ut was Balboa and no
e "stout Cortez" who Travelled
these parts, Smitty reminded
S me. I glanced down at m,
e paunch and wondered Whethe
Keats Cortez was any stoute.
= than l..
1 Tributary of Chagres
|, The creek we had reached
= Smitty said, is known a