ed. Occasionally a rustling
flight of paroquets or ciganas overhead startled me for a moment, or a
large pirarucu plashed out of the water; but except for these sounds,
Nature was silent, and animals as well as men seemed to pause in the
heat and seek shelter.

Dinner brought us all together again at the close of the afternoon in
our airy banqueting-hall. As we were with the President, our picnic was
of a much more magnificent character than are our purely scientific
excursions, of which we have had many. On such occasions, we are forced
to adapt our wants to our means; and the make-shifts to which we are
obliged to resort, if they are sometimes inconvenient, are often very
amusing. But now, instead of teacups doing duty as tumblers, empty
barrels serving as chairs, and the like incongruities, we had a silver
soup tureen and a cook and a waiter, and knives and forks enough to go
round, and many other luxuries which such wayfarers as ourselves learn
to do without. While we were dining, the Indians began to come in from
the surrounding forest to pay their respects to the President; for his
visit was the cause of great rejoicing, and there was to be a ball in
his honor in the evening. They brought an enormous cluster of game as an
offering. What a mass of color it was, looking more like an immense
bouquet of flowers than like a bunch of birds! It was composed entirely
of toucans with their red and yellow beaks, blue eyes, and soft white
breasts bordered with crimson, and of parrots, or papagaios, as they
call them here, with their gorgeous plumage of green, blue, purple, and
red.

When we had dined we took coffee outside, while our places around the
table were filled by the Indian guests, who were to have a dinner-party
in their turn. It was pleasant to see with how much courtesy several of
the Brazilian gentlemen of our party waited upon these Indian senhoras,
passing them a variety of dishes, helping them to wine, and treating
them with as much attention as if they had been the highest ladies of
the land. They seemed, however, rather shy and embarrassed, scarcely
touching the nice things placed before them, till one of the gentlemen
who has lived a good deal among the Indians, and knows their habits
perfectly, took the knife and fork from one of them, exclaiming,--"Make
no ceremony, and don't be ashamed; eat with your fingers, all of you, as
you're accustomed to do, and then you'll find your appetites and enjoy
your di