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I trembled for Ellen's safety, and yet could not venture to look back to ascertain how it was faring with her. I thought too of John, Maria, Domingos, and our Indians. The danger for those who came last would be greatly increased. Had it not been for the sipo, I could scarcely have kept my footing. Now I was wading up to my middle, now climbing over a rock worn smooth by the never-resting waters.
John seized his arm directly afterwards, and together we towed him towards the bank, calling to the Indians to haul the sipo gently in. Soon reaching the bank, we dragged up our nearly drowned companion. Not till then did we discover that he was Isoro, who, it appeared, had taken the load of a sick bearer unable to carry it.
Guapo attacked the roots with his axe, and enough trunks were soon felled to make laths, doors, and all sorts of benches. The different kinds were now collected on the edge of the stream, and were tied together by a rope-like, creeping plant, called a "Sipo," so that they formed a rude raft.
The briar which produces the sarsaparilla is a tall creeping plant, which throws out a large number of long wrinkled roots of a uniform thickness, and about the size of a goose-quill. Nothing is required further than digging and dragging these roots out of the ground, drying them a while, and then binding them in bundles with a small "sipo," or tough forest creeper.
Occasionally we came upon an uprooted tree lying across the path, its voluminous crown still held up by thick cables of sipo, connecting it with standing trees; a wide circuit had to be made in these cases, and it was sometimes difficult to find the right path again. At length we arrived at our journey's end.
Both John and I were good swimmers. He secured one to his waist, as did I, signing to the Indians to hold the other ends. Then we dashed into the stream, swimming out towards the struggling Indian. In another moment he would have been carried by us. I reached him just as I was at the extreme end of the sipo.
Now one would catch hold of a horizontal sipo, and swing vehemently backwards and forwards; now two or three would scramble up a perpendicular one, and a fourth would catch hold of the tail of the last and hang by it, whisking about his own tail meantime till it had found a branch of liana, when he would let go, and bring himself up again by that wonderful member of his, and skip away to a distance from his playmate, who might attempt to retaliate.
Guapo attacked the roots with his axe, and enough trunks were soon felled to make laths, doors, and all sorts of benches. The different kinds were now collected on the edge of the stream, and were tied together by a rope-like, creeping plant, called a "Sipo," so that they formed a rude raft.
The briar which produces the sarsaparilla is a tall creeping plant, which throws out a large number of long wrinkled roots of a uniform thickness, and about the size of a goose-quill. Nothing is required further than digging and dragging these roots out of the ground, drying them a while, and then binding them in bundles with a small "sipo," or tough forest creeper.
It was too heavy, however, for him to manage. I thought we should have lost the deer; but kneeling down, he raised it on a hanging sipo, and let fly an arrow, which struck the animal. He had time to send another shaft before the deer got out of sight. Then calling to me, he urged me to pursue it.
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