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Updated: June 7, 2025
But imagine my dismay when, by neglect not to notch the tree-trunks as I passed them, I discovered I did not know in what direction our camp lay. "Are we lost?" asked the boy, in an anxious tone. "We have gone too far," said I to the lad; "and perhaps we shall not be able to get back to the 'Palm-tree Villa' this evening. I am going to fire off my gun to attract l'Encuerado's attention."
Lucien proposed to hollow out a viznaga to sleep in a project in which he was encouraged by l'Encuerado's telling him that we might have the luxury of a window, and could keep off wild beasts by filling up the entrance with thorny cierges.
These birds have rather a grave and sad air, and utter now and then a wild and plaintive cry." We stopped to watch these waders gloomily standing in the water, until we heard l'Encuerado's "Hiou! hiou!" informing us that our companions were approaching the bivouac.
"It is roasted, and we shall eat it to-morrow morning at breakfast." This reply and Lucien's disappointed face much amused us. L'Encuerado's fault was too much zeal: not knowing that Sumichrast was going to skin the bird, he had sacrificed it.
I cried, angrily. "Don't you think it is nice, Tatita?" "It's perfectly filthy; you've poisoned us!" But I soon recognized the smell of a kind of coriander with which the Indians occasionally saturate their food. Sumichrast, like me, had not got beyond the first mouthful; but Lucien, who shared to some extent l'Encuerado's weakness for the culantro, was having quite a feast.
They were covered with dew, and looked as if they were asleep, until the first rays of the sun fell upon them. Before we started, the young naturalist again tested the delicate sensibility of the plant, which Sumichrast told him was allied to the tree which produces gum-arabic. L'Encuerado's cheek was less swollen, and Sumichrast could use his hand, although it still pained him.
And, taking off his load, we soon lost sight of him among the under-brush. Under any other circumstances, Lucien's frightened look, when he saw us take so many precautions in approaching a human dwelling, would have amused; but, so far from doing so now, we listened anxiously for the least sound. At last we heard l'Encuerado's loud and welcome "Hiou! hiou!" The hut was perfectly empty.
It is said that, when it catches sight of a man, it hangs itself up by the tail, and does not dare to move; but I think this story will do to go along with l'Encuerado's about the glass-spider." The Indian started off straight to the bivouac, and I led my companions by the side of the stream, admiring as we passed some magnificent trees.
No doubt it's a good thing to be brave, but you must manage to be less stupid when you are in the forests of the Terre-Chaude, unless you want to be devoured by a tiger, or scratched to pieces by an ant-eater." After listening to l'Encuerado's speech, Lucien scolded him for firing at the poor animal, and then joined us, close to the porcupine, which was dying.
Not the least convinced of l'Encuerado's kind intentions towards him, Gringalet seemed to bear malice towards the Indian, and for three days was very shy of coming near him. After this scene the preparations for dinner occupied our attention. If our guns had been more successful, we should have had fat to fry our fish in.
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