in a leaf,
tied some grass-fibres around them, and inserted them in the large
pocket of my khaki-coat. The box with the gold dust was there, also
the boxes with the exposed photographic plates. Most of the gold had
filtered out of the box, but a neat quantity still remained. One of my
servants--a handsome girl--who, excepting for the labial ornaments,
could have been transformed into an individual of quite a civilised
appearance by opportunity, gave me a beautiful black necklace as
a souvenir. It was composed of several hundred pieces, all carved
out of ebony nuts. It had cost her three weeks of constant work. I
embraced and was embraced by almost everybody in the _maloca_, after
which ceremony we went in procession to the canoe that was to take
me down to the Branco River. The Chief bade me a fond farewell, that
forever shall be implanted in my heart. I had lived here weeks among
these cannibal Indians, had enjoyed their kindness and generosity
without charge; I could give them nothing in return and they asked
nothing. I could have stayed here for the rest of my natural life if I
had so desired, but now I was to say good-bye forever. How wonderful
was this farewell! It was my opportunity for acknowledging that the
savage heart is by no means devoid of the feelings and sentiments
that characterise more elevated, so-called civilised individuals.

For the last time I heard the little dog bark, the same that had licked
my face when I fainted in front of the _maloca_ upon my first arrival;
and the large _arara_ screamed in the tree-tops as I turned once more
towards the world of the white man.

The journey was without incident. The wourahli men set me off near the
mouth of the Branco River, at a distance which I covered in less than
five hours by following the banks. I was greeted by Coronel Maya of
the _Compagnie Transatlantique de Caoutchouc_, who sent me by canoe
down the old Itecoahy, until we reached the Floresta headquarters.

Here I gave Coronel da Silva an account of the death of Chief Marques,
and the brave Jerome, which made a deep impression upon this noble man.

The three men, Magellaes, Anisette, and Freitas, had returned in
safety after they separated from us.

I met the wife of Chief Marques. She was the woman whose arm I had
amputated. When I saw her she was carrying, with the arm left to
her, a pail of water from the little creek behind headquarters. She
was a different woman, and I was pleased to kno