Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

iday. The weather was splendid, the heat being tempered by the refreshing breezes which blew

ha through the thick woods which bordered the

n who had no intention of going far from their companions in pursuit of any game. Manoel could be trusted for that, and the girls-for

complete, and it was necessary that its construction should not be interrupted for a day, and another was t

the two girls met on the bank at the angle where the two streams joined. One of the blacks went with them. They all embarked in one of the ubas

height of some thirty feet with a sort of halo made of the dainty bran

you are only a stranger in these regions of the Upper Amazon. We are at

one the less mistress of your house in our town of Bel

me here to exchange loving speeches, I imagine.

-not for an inst

will if Minha

ill not

" said Lina

Forget! my brother requires it. All is broken off! As long as this walk lasts we

ure," sa

strangers here," said the youn

for the first time," added t

said Manoel, t

speak, sir?" said she in the

will be glad if your br

"Stupid idea that I had! Be engaged, my fri

e word escaped so naturally that L

noel repaid Minha for the

his sister out of her embarrassment; "

me to forget each other, so as not to spoil your walk. Very well; and now I am going to ask a sacrifice from

get

are a sp

ou forbi

are flying about so happily among the trees! And the same interdiction with regard to the smaller ga

" said

d we shall save or lose ourselves, an

to refuse, eh?" asked B

uld!" replied

; "I do not refuse; I will

der the splendid trees, whose thick foliage preve

d different species in a square mile. A forester could easily see that no woodman had been there with his hatchet or ax, for the effects of a clearing are visible for many centuries afterward. If the

e bushes, chatting and laughing. In front, when the brambles were too thick, the n

irds in all their varieties, light-blue and ruby red; "tisauras" with long scissors-like tails, looking like detached flowers which the wind blew from branch to branch; blackbirds, with orange plumage bound with brown; golden-edged beccaficos; and "sabias," black as crows; all united

a kind of light fawn-colored sparrow-hawk. If he proudly hooted, displaying in the air the long white plumes of his tail, he in his turn meekly took to

h his eyes than his ears, for the cries and the songs of these thousands of birds were every now and then so penetrating that he was not able to hear what she sai

ach other along the higher branches. Here and there a few cones of the solar rays shot down into the underwood. In fact, in these tropical forests light does not seem to be necessary for their existence. The air is enough for the vegetable gr

with blue wings like shimmering watered silk, leilu butterflies reflexed with gold and striped with fringes of green, agrippina moths, ten inches long, with leaves for wings, maribunda bees, like living emeralds set in sockets of gold, a

repeated the e

you say so," said Benito, "and that

ul things are only lent to us; is it not so, Manoel? They

s a poet himself when his time comes, and he admires as much as we do all t

et now," repl

d Benito. "O! Natu

d imposed on him a genuine privation. There was no lack of game in the

of ostriches, of the species known as "naudus," from four to five feet high, accompanied by their inseparable

as, at a gesture from his sister, he replaced under his ar

as," said Manoel, "for they are

e noxious insects, and just as we ought the insects because they live on small

bushes, and a well-aimed bullet would assuredly have stopped them. Here and there turkeys showed themselves with their milk and coffee-colored plumage; and peccaries, a sort of wild pig highly

ant, already nearly undiscoverable on the banks of the Upper Amazon and its tributaries, pachyderms so dear to the hunters for their rarity, so appreci

fingers, but faithful to h

him, and probably register a master-stroke in sporting annals, if within range

ers, leopards, jaguars, guepars, or cougars, called indifferently oun

d for an instant, "to walk is very w

admire, to visit for the last time these forests of Central America,

an

Lina wh

other than a silly one," sa

Lina when she has been thinking how to give our wal

sure my idea will please

t is it?"

e that

sted round a gigantic sensitive mimosa, whose leaves

" said

a, "that we try to follow

this liana, no matter what may be the obstacles, thickets, under

, brother!" said Minha; "

ou say that Lina is absurd so as to say

f that will amuse you," returned

t afraid?"

ctions!" sh

hat if you were already on your way and

; "I have no more to say. I o

happy as children hom

mity, like the thread of Ariadne, as far almost as that which the heiress of Mi

under the name of the red "japicanga," whose length sometimes measur

," whose branches have been appropriately compared by Agassiz to long sticks of coral flecked with green. Here round "tucumas," or ficuses, capriciously twisted like centenarian olive-trees, and of which Brazil had fifty-four varieties; here round the kinds of euphorbias, which produce c

hought they had lost their guiding thread! For it was necessary

!" said Lina

nha; "that is not it, that

s right!" s

g!" Manoel would

-continued discussions, in

d rush at the trees and clamber up to the branches enci

ddle of bromelias, "karatas," armed with their sharp prickles, orchids with rosy flowers and violet

liconias, rosy-tasseled calliandras, rhipsalas encircling it like the thread on an electric reel, between the knots of the large

t shouts of joy, and how they resumed

en advancing, and nothing had happened to w

e, and the birds flew away in hundreds, and the monke

e group passed in. If it was a high rock, carpeted with verdure, over

ccording to Humboldt, "accompanies man in the infancy of his civilization," the great provider of the inhabitant of the torrid zones, a banana-tree, was standi

top soon?"

ried Benito, "not without ha

a, "it will soon be time

ss, let us go on ag

er!" adde

he forest, which, becoming clearer,

It became less inconvenient to follow, seeing that they approa

azon. But a bridge of lianas, made of "bejucos," twined together by their interlacing branches, crossed the

ad already stepped on the swingi

d to keep hi

"Benito may go further if he

"Don't be afraid, the liana is getting thinner; we

the young mulatto boldl

replied Minha. "Come along

wayed above the ravine like a swing, and

e interminable cipo, in the direction of the river,

he end of the lia

. Look!" and Benito pointed to the cipo which, lost in the

s that?" as

we had better approach wit

d them to let him go on a bit, and s

nd the black remained mo

, and they saw him rush toward

een, and little adapte

le as a cord, had formed into a slipknot, and the shakings came from the j

tunate fellow, and with a cut of

oel leaned over him, to try and recal

!" murmur

Lina. "He breathes again! His

ut I think it was about

clothed badly enough, much emaciated, an

and a cup and ball in palm wood, of which the ball, m

peated Lina, "and young still! What co

ght to life again, and he opened his eyes and gave an "ahem!" so vigorou

my friend?" Be

er-on, as f

your

o, at your service; and I am still able to curl and cut your hair, to shave you, and to make you comfortable

made you t

would have duly regretted had the regrets been in another world! But eight hundred leagues of coun

He was one of those wandering barbers who travel on the banks of the Upper Amazon, going from village to village, and putti

ten nothing for forty hours, astray in the forest, h

him, "you will go back with

"you cut me down and I belong to

you think we did well to con

," returne

thought that we should finish by f

fficulties, and on the road to

the good idea she had had of following the liana, and they all started on the road to the fazenda, w