sed
such, and was no longer curious upon that head. It was something more
than mere curiosity that moved Guapo. When the affair was over, he rose
from his seat, and stalking off to the place where the bird had been
seen to eat the leaves, he gathered a quantity of them, and then
returned to the fire. Don Pablo recognised them as the leaves of a plant
of the genus _Mikania_, and known popularly as the "vejuco de guaco."

Guapo knew nothing of the scientific designation of the plant, but he
had long ago been taught the valuable properties of its leaves as an
antidote against the bite of the most poisonous snakes. He had known
them to cure the bite of the cascabel (_rattle-snake_), and even of the
small spotted viper, the most poisonous of all the American snakes.

What, then, did Guapo with the leaves of the vejuco? First, he chopped
them up as fine as he could, and then, tying them tightly in a piece of
cotton cloth, he expressed from them a quantity of juice--enough for his
purpose. That done, with the point of a knife he made small incisions
between his toes, and also upon his breast and fingers. Into each of
these incisions, even while the blood was flowing from them, he dropped
the juice of the Mikania, and rubbed it in with fresh leaves of the
plant itself; and then, with some tufts of the soft floss of the
silk-cotton tree he covered the incisions, so as to stop the bleeding.
He wound up this strange performance, by chewing some of the leaves, and
swallowing about a spoonful of the juice. This made the "inoculation"
complete, and Guapo, as he himself declared, was now invulnerable to the
bite of the most venomous serpent!

He offered to "inoculate" the others in the same way. They at first
refused--Don Pablo among the rest--but after a day or two, when each of
the party had met with several narrow escapes from vipers, coral snakes,
and the much-dreaded "jararaca," Don Pablo thought it prudent that all
should submit to the operation, and accordingly Guapo "doctored" the
party without more ado.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PALM-WOODS.

It happened, that upon the opposite side of the stream there was a broad
track covered with palm-trees, while not one was to be seen on that side
where they intended building their house. As these are the most
convenient trees for constructing a house to suit the hot climate of the
Montana, it appeared necessary that they should use them. But how were
they to get at them? The stre