On thinking it over, we came to the conclusion that they could not have been gone more than forty-eight hours before we took possession, for that was as long as the fire could have remained alive without attention. Doubtless they had heard our firing further down the Yasuní when out hunting, and being utterly ignorant of all that pertained to the outer world, had fled from our approach. Whether they would return or not was an open question. It seemed likely that they would return some time, at any rate, to find out what had become of their homes. Thus, being absolutely unacquainted with the nature and habits of the savages, we naturally felt inclined to take as many precautions as we could against a possible visit from the rightful owners of the dwelling we had usurped. So we slept with what arms we could collect at our sides; I on a bed of spears laid from beam to beam six feet above ground, Jack by the fire with his machete and a spear at hand. To protect myself from the keen edges of the three-cornered blades which ran half the length of the spears, I covered them with several layers of that material which alone makes life possible for mankind in the Amazon basin, the leaves of the ever-present palm.

    Thus we entered on the third period of our expedition.

    For three weeks we lived in our new home. During all that time we were never out of sight of it, and whenever we left its shelter it was only to dig up roots from the chacra or collect firewood. We were in a bad way. The itching sores with which we were covered nearly drove us mad once our blood began to flow again. They had spread all over our bodies until we could scarcely bear the agony. Our feet, too, had festered with the thorns still embedded under the skin. We spent most of our time trying to dig them out with the help of the machetes, and little by little we rid ourselves of them. The suppuration (chig-chig, as the Quichuas say) from which we were suffering took a long time to loosen its hold on us. Our nails became loose, and watery matter exuded from under them as well as from the sores with which our feet were covered, and even from between our toes. It gave off a particularly offensive odor. Time and our own devices were the only aids to a cure we had. While we could stand the pain in our feet, bad though it was, we had to find an immediate remedy for the itching of our bodies or go crazy. It occurred to me that nothing can live beyond a certain temperature and that the microbes in our skins could be reached by heat with comparative ease. So it was that we hit on an effective means of ridding ourselves of them. We took it in turns to operate on each other, heating banana skins in the fire, and holding them on the sores long enough to raise a blister. The process was certainly painful, but we were glad enough to exchange an intolerable itch for even a burn. Of one thing we had to be careful -- not to break the skin of the blister for fear of worse infection taking the place of the last.

    If the savages had come back any of those days, they would have found one of us sitting astride the prostrate body of the other, solemnly torturing him with fire.

    Meanwhile our feet, with constant bathing in hot water, had taken a turn for the better, and there was nothing to do but wait in patience.

    We were, of course, practically naked, having used almost all the remnants of our clothes as rags. Round our necks and waists, however, still hung the bands of our cotton shirts and pants of better days from which were draped a few soiled ribbons.

    Although we never saw a sign of the infieles during our whole period of convalescence, it is practically certain that their scouts were watching our movements all the time from the edge of the forest. In the light of my subsequent experience of those nameless unknown people, I am not surprised that we lived unmolested. They are, I think, as low in the scale of development as any living men. They live by the watercourses, but have neither canoes nor rafts, and apparently catch no fish. We never came across any trace of even the most primitive form of carpentering except their houses which, as I have said, are made by leaning saplings against a common ridge-pole supported on two posts, and thatching the simple frame-work. Their houses are always built with the gables facing east and west, a matter of superstition, I imagine, for they never let any light into them.

    They wear no clothes whatever, a fact which is borne out by the absence of looms from all their houses, and by the fleeting glimpses which we caught of them from time to time, as they dashed through the forest at our approach. They belong to the Stone Age, being ignorant of the use of any metals (even gold, to Jack's disgust!). For weapons they have nothing but the spear and blow-gun.

    They bury their dead singly in the forests. The corpse is interred in a sitting position, as with the ancient Incas, and a miniature house is built on it; a pot of masata is set on the ground over the body. Evidently they revere, or fear, the dead. One day, after we had been in the country some months and built a camp by the river, I came across a grave by the side of a trail, and out of curiosity to see at close quarters the kind of people the savages were, started to investigate. After delving a few inches I broke through the crust of dry clay which formed the lid, so to speak, of the hollow grave in which the body sat. Here was one of them at last who could not run away from me! Seeing the head, I drew it from the grave to find that the long, straight, black hair was still hanging from the skull. To keep it as a curio, I took it back to camp and hung it up inside the house. Within twenty-four hours the savages had paid a visit to the place in our absence, removed my trophy and replaced it in the grave. That was the only time they summoned up enough courage to enter our quarters. It must have been a very strong feeling that led them to overcome their terror of us.

    Personal adornment, a habit so common among savage people, is, as far as I could find out, unknown to them. Neither necklaces nor any other ornaments were found by us, but so much about those people and their ways was hidden from us by their refusal to have any dealings with us that I know comparatively little about them. Most of my observations on their mode of living are necessarily mere deduction from our studies of their

    Had we been as highly trained in woodcraft as they, we might have caught one of them, and so broken the ice. As it was, we left their country without having exchanged one single word or sign. Thus it happens that my sketch of this tribe, which -- doubtless like many another -- lies buried in the unfathomable vastness of the forest which stretches from Colombia to the Argentine, is hopelessly incomplete.

    To return to my narrative. At the end of three weeks of vegetarian diet and careful nursing, we cured ourselves completely of the results of our five days' march. Free to turn our attention to the question of prospecting the forests for rubber, we began to explore the numerous trails which led through the high country within a few miles of our headquarters. We had been left complete masters of the whole district. Surely no invading force ever had an easier victory than did we. I do not wish to convey the idea, however, that we were pleased to be left so completely alone at a time when we were still hoping to establish friendly relations with those ghostlike men, who, though everywhere, were never more than glimpsed. We were far from being convinced that we should never break down the barrier that their fear and superstition had built up between us.

    As if to give us an idea of what the country held in store for us, Nature had planted the largest rubber tree I have ever seen on the very edge of the clearing where we lived. The rubber trees in that part of the world, the