Paraguay—Journey up the river—A primitive1 Capital—Dick the Australian—His polychrome garb2—A Paraguayan Race Meeting—Beautiful figures of native women—The "Falcon3" adventurers—a quaint4 railway—Patiño Cué—An extraordinary household—The capable Australian boy—Wild life in the swamps—"Bushed"—A literary evening—A railway record—The Tigre midnight swims—Canada—Maddening flies—A grand salmon5 river—The Canadian backwoods—Skunks and bears—Different views as to industrial progress.
As negotiations6 had commenced in the "'eighties" for a new Treaty, including an Extradition7 clause, between the British and Paraguayan Governments, several minor8 points connected with it required clearing up.
I accordingly went up the river to Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, five days distant from Buenos Ayres by steamer. A short account of that primitive little inland Republic in the days before it was linked up with Argentina by railway may prove of interest, for it was unlike anything else, with its stately two hundred-year-old relics9 of the old Spanish civilisation10 mixed up with the roughest of modern makeshifts. The vast majority of the people were Guaranis, of pure Indian blood and speech. The little State was so isolated11 from the rest of the world that the nineteenth century
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had touched it very lightly. Since its independence Paraguay had suffered under the rule of a succession of Dictator Presidents, the worst of whom was Francisco Lopez, usually known as Tyrant12 Lopez. This ignorant savage13 aspired14 to be the Napoleon of South America, and in 1864 declared war simultaneously15 on Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic. The war continued till 1870, when, fortunately, Lopez was killed, but the population of Paraguay had diminished from one and a quarter million to four hundred thousand people, nearly all the males being killed. In my time there were seven women to every male of the population.
The journey up the mighty16 Paraná is very uninteresting, for these huge rivers are too broad for the details on either shore to be seen clearly. After the steamer had turned up the Paraguay river on the verge17 of the tropics, it became less monotonous18. The last Argentine town is Formosa, a little place of thatched shanties19 clustered under groves20 of palms. We arrived there at night, and remained three hours. I shall never forget the eerie21, uncanny effect of seeing for the first time Paraguayan women, with a white petticoat, and a white sheet over their heads as their sole garments, flitting noiselessly along on bare feet under the palms in the brilliant moonlight. They looked like hooded22 silent ghosts, and reminded me irresistibly23 of the fourth act of "Robert le Diable," when the ghosts of the nuns24 arise out of their cloister25 graves at Bertram's command. They did not though as
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in the opera, break into a glittering ballet.
On board the steamer there was a young globe-trotting Australian. He was a nice, cheery lad, and, like most Australians, absolutely natural and unaffected. As he spoke26 no Spanish, he was rather at a loose end, and we agreed to foregather.
Asuncion was really a curiosity in the way of capitals. Lopez the Tyrant suffered from megalomania, as others rulers have done since his day. He began to construct many imposing27 buildings, but finished none of them. He had built a huge palace on the model of the Tuileries on a bluff28 over the river. It looked very imposing, but had no roof and no inside. He had also begun a great mausoleum for members of the Lopez family, but that again had only a façade, and was already crumbling29 to ruin. The rest of the town consisted principally of mud and bamboo shanties, thatched with palm. The streets were unpaved, and in the main street a strong spring gushed30 up. Everyone rode; there was but one wheeled vehicle in Asuncion, and that was only used for weddings and funerals. The inhabitants spoke of their one carriage as we should speak of something absolutely unique of its kind, say the statue of the Venus de Milo, or of some rare curiosity, such as a great auk's egg, or a twopenny blue Mauritius postage stamp, or a real live specimen31 of the dodo.
Nothing could be rougher than the accommodation Howard, the young Australian, and I found at the hotel. We were shown into a very dirty brick-paved
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room containing eight beds. We washed unabashed at the fountain in the patio32, as there were no other facilities for ablutions at all, and the bare-footed, shirtless waiter addressed us each by our Christian33 names tout34 court, at once, omitting the customary "Don." The Spanish forms of Christian names are more melodious35 than ours, and Howard failed to recognize his homely36 name of "Dick" in "Ricardo."
As South American men become moustached and bearded very early in life, I think that our clean-shaved faces, to which they were not accustomed, led the people to imagine us both much younger than we really were, for I was then twenty-seven, and the long-legged Dick was twenty-one. Never have I known anyone laugh so much as that light-hearted Australian boy. He was such a happy, merry, careless creature, brimful of sheer joy at being alive, and if he had never cultivated his brains much, he atoned37 for it by being able to do anything he liked with his hands and feet. He could mend and repair anything, from a gun to a fence; he could cook, and use a needle and thread as skilfully38 as he could a stock-whip. I took a great liking39 to this lean, sun-browned, pleasant-faced lad with the merry laugh and the perfectly40 natural manner; we got on together as though we had known each other all our lives, in fact we were addressing one another by our Christian names on the third day of our acquaintance.
Dick was a most ardent41 cricketer, and his
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baggage seemed to consist principally of a large and varied42 assortment43 of blazers of various Australian athletic44 clubs. He insisted on wearing one of these, a quiet little affair of mauve, blue, and pink stripes, and our first stroll through Asuncion became a sort of triumphal progress. The inhabitants flocked out of their houses, loud in their admiration45 of the "Gringo's" (all foreigners are "Gringos" in South America) tasteful raiment. So much so that I began to grow jealous, and returning to the hotel, I borrowed another of Howard's blazers (if my memory serves me right, that of the "Wonga-Wonga Wallabies"), an artistic46 little garment of magenta47, orange, and green stripes. We then sauntered about Asuncion, arm-in-arm, to the delirious48 joy of the populace. We soon had half the town at our heels, enthusiastic over these walking rainbows from the mysterious lands outside Paraguay. These people were as inquisitive49 as children, and plied50 us with perpetual questions. Since Howard could not speak Spanish, all the burden of conversation fell on me. As I occupied an official position, albeit51 a modest one, I thought it best to sink my identity, and became temporarily a citizen of the United States, Mr. Dwight P. Curtis, of Hicksville, Pa., and I gave my hearers the most glowing and rose-coloured accounts of the enterprise and nascent52 industries of this progressive but, I fear, wholly imaginary spot. I can only trust that no Paraguayan left his native land to seek his fortune in Hicksville, Pa., for he might
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have had to search the State of Pennsylvania for some time before finding it.
I have already recounted, earlier in these reminiscences, how the Paraguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs received me, and that his Excellency on that occasion dispensed54 not only with shoes and stockings, but with a shirt as well. He was, however, like most people in Spanish-speaking lands, courtesy itself.
Dick Howard having heard that there was some races in a country town six miles away, was, like a true Australian, wild to go to them. Encouraged by our phenomenal success of the previous day, we arrayed ourselves in two new Australian blazers, and rode out to the races, Howard imploring55 me all the way to use my influence to let him have a mount there.
The races were very peculiar56. The course was short, only about three furlongs, and perfectly straight. Only two horses ran at once, so the races were virtually a succession of "heats," but the excitement and betting were tremendous. The jockeys were little Indian boys, and their "colours" consisted of red, blue, or green bathing drawers. Otherwise they were stark57 naked, and, of course, bare-legged. The jockey's principal preoccupation seemed to be either to kick the opposing jockey in the face, or to crack him over the head with the heavy butts58 of their raw-hide whips. Howard still wanted to ride. I pointed59 out to him the impossibility of exhibiting to the public
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his six feet of lean young Australian in nothing but a pair of green bathing drawers. He answered that if he could only get a mount he would be quite willing to dispense53 with the drawers even. Howard also had a few remarks to offer about the Melbourne Cup, and Flemington Racecourse, and was not wholly complimentary60 to this Paraguayan country meeting. The ladies present were nearly all bare-foot, and clad in the invariable white petticoat and sheet. It was not in the least like the Royal enclosure at Ascot, yet they had far more on, and appeared more becomingly dressed than many of the ladies parading in that sacrosanct61 spot in this year of grace 1919. Every single woman, and every child, even infants of the tenderest age, had a green Paraguayan cigar in their mouths.
These Paraguayan women were as beautifully built as classical statues; with exquisitely62 moulded little hands and feet. Their "attaches," as the French term the wrist and ankles, were equally delicately formed. They were "tea with plenty of milk in it" colour, and though their faces were not pretty, they moved with such graceful63 dignity that the general impression they left was a very pleasing one.
Our blazers aroused rapturous enthusiasm. I am sure that the members of the "St. Kilda Wanderers" would have forgiven me for masquerading in their colours, could they have witnessed the terrific success I achieved in my tasteful, if brilliant, borrowed plumage.
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Asuncion pleased me. This quaint little capital, stranded64 in its backwater in the very heart of the South American Continent, was so remote from all the interests and movements of the modern world. The big three-hundred-year cathedral bore the unmistakable dignified65 stamp of the old Spanish "Conquistadores." It contained an altar-piece of solid silver reaching from floor to roof. How Lopez must have longed to melt that altar-piece down for his own use! Round the cathedral were some old houses with verandahs supported on palm trunks, beautifully carved in native patterns by Indians under the direction of the Jesuits. The Jesuits had also originally introduced the orange tree into Paraguay, where it had run wild all over the country, producing delicious fruit, which for some reason was often green, instead of being of the familiar golden colour.
Everyone envies what they do not possess. On the Continent cafés are sometimes decorated with pictures of palms and luxuriant tropical vegetation, in order to give people of the frozen North an illusion of warmth.
In steaming Asuncion, on the other hand, the fashionable café was named, "The North Pole." Here an imaginative Italian artist with a deficient66 sense of perspective and curious ideas of colour had decorated the walls with pictures of icebergs67, snow, and Polar bears, thus affording the inhabitants of this stew68-pan of a town a delicious sense of arctic coolness. The "North Pole" was the
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only place in Paraguay where ice and iced drinks were to be procured69.
Being the height of the summer, the heat was almost unbearable70, and bathing in the river was risky71 on account of those hateful biting-fish. There was a spot two miles away, however, where a stream had been brought to the edge of the cliff overhanging the river, down which it dropped in a feathery cascade72, forming a large pool below it. Howard and I rode out every morning there to bathe and luxuriate in the cool water. The river made a great bend here, forming a bay half a mile wide. This bay was literally73 choked with Victoria regia, the giant water-lily, with leaves as big as tea-trays, and great pink flowers the size of cabbages. The lilies were in full bloom then, quite half a mile of them, and they were really a splendid sight. I seem somehow in this description of the Victoria regia to have been plagiarising the immortal74 Mrs. O'Dowd, of "Vanity Fair," in her account of the glories of the hot-houses at her "fawther's" seat of Glenmalony.
Few people now remember a fascinating book of the "'eighties," "The Cruise of the Falcon," recounting how six amateurs sailed a twenty-ton yacht from Southampton to Asuncion in Paraguay. Three of her crew got so bitten with Paraguay that they determined75 to remain there. We met one of these adventurers by chance in Asuncion, Captain Jardine, late of the P. and O. service, an elderly man. He invited us to visit them at
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Patiño Cué, the place where they had settled down, some twenty-five miles from the capital, though he warned us that we should find things extremely rough there, and that there was not one single stick of furniture in the house. He asked us to bring out our own hammocks and blankets, as well as our guns and saddles, the saddle being in my time an invariable item of a traveller's baggage.
Dick and I accordingly bought grass-plaited hammocks and blankets, and started two days later, "humping our swags," as the Australian picturesquely76 expressed the act of carrying our own possessions. That colour-loving youth had donned a different blazer, probably that of the "Coolgardie Cockatoos." It would have put Joseph's coat of many colours completely in the shade any day of the week, and attracted a great deal of flattering attention.
The ambitious Lopez had insisted on having a railway in his State, to show how progressive he was, so a railway was built. It ran sixty miles from Asuncion to nowhere in particular, and no one ever wanted to travel by it; still it was unquestionably a railway. To give a finishing touch to this, Lopez had constructed a railway station big enough to accommodate the traffic of Paddington. It was, of course, not finished, but was quite large enough for its one train a day. The completed portion was imposing with columns and statues, the rest tailed off to nothing. Here, to our amazement78, we found a train composed of
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English rolling-stock, with an ancient engine built in Manchester, and, more wonderful to say, with an Englishman as engine-driver. The engine not having been designed for burning wood, the fire-box was too small, and the driver found it difficult to keep up steam with wood, as we found out during our journey. We travelled in a real English first-class carriage of immense antiquity79, blue cloth and all. So decrepit80 was it that when the speed of the train exceeded five miles an hour (which was but seldom) the roof and sides parted company, and gaped81 inches apart. We seldom got up the gradients at the first or second try, but of course allowances must be made for a Paraguayan railway. Lopez had built Patiño Cué, for which we were bound, as a country-house for himself. He had not, of course, finished it, but had insisted on his new railway running within a quarter of a mile of his house, which we found very convenient.
I could never have imagined such a curious establishment as the one at Patiño Cué. The large stone house, for which Jardine paid the huge rent of £5 per annum, was tumbling to ruin. Three rooms only were fairly water-tight, but these had gaping82 holes in their roofs and sides, and the window frames had long since been removed. The fittings consisted of a few enamelled iron plates and mugs, and of one tin basin. Packing cases served as seats and tables, and hammocks were slung83 on hooks. Captain Jardine did all the cooking and ran the establishment; his two companions (Howard
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and I, for convenience's sake, simply termed them "the wasters") lay smoking in their hammocks all day, and did nothing whatever. I may add that "the wasters" supplied the whole financial backing. Jardine wore native dress, with bare legs and sandals, a poncho84 round his waist, and another over his shoulders. A poncho is merely a fringed brown blanket with hole cut in it for the head to pass through. With his long grey beard streaming over his flowing garments, Jardine looked like a neutral-tinted saint in a stained-glass window. It must be a matter for congratulation that, owing to the very circumstances of the case, saints in stained-glass windows are seldom called on to take violent exercise, otherwise their voluminous draperies would infallibly all fall off at the second step. Jardine was a highly educated and an interesting man, with a love for books on metaphysics and other abstruse85 subjects. He carried a large library about with him, all of which lay in untidy heaps on the floor. He was unquestionably more than a little eccentric. The "wasters" did not count in any way, unless cheques had to be written. The other members of the establishment were an old Indian woman who smoked perpetual cigars, and her grandson, a boy known as Lazarus, from a physical defect which he shared with a Biblical personage, on the testimony86 of the latter's sisters—you could have run a drag with that boy.
The settlers had started as ranchers; but the
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"wasters" had allowed the cattle to break loose and scatter87 all over the country. They had been too lazy to collect them, or to repair the broken fences, so just lay in their hammocks and smoked. There were some fifty acres of orange groves behind the house. The energetic Jardine had fenced these in, and, having bought a number of pigs, turned pork butcher. There was an abundance of fallen fruit for these pigs to fatten88 on, and Jardine had built a smoke-house, where he cured his orange-fed pork, and smoked it with lemon wood. His bacon and hams were super-excellent, and fetched good prices in Asuncion, where they were establishing quite a reputation.
Meanwhile, the "wasters" lay in their hammocks in the verandah and smoked. Jardine told me that one of them had not undressed or changed his clothes for six weeks, as it was far too much trouble. Judging from his appearance, he had not made use of soap and water either during that period.
Dick Howard proved a real "handy man." In two days this lengthy89, lean, sunburnt youth had rounded up and driven home the scattered90 cattle, and then set to work to mend and repair all the broken fences. He caught the horses daily, and milked the cows, an art I was never able myself to acquire, and made tea for himself in a "billy."
Patiño Cué was a wonderful site for a house. It stood high up on rolling open ground, surrounded by intensely green wooded knolls91. The
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virgin92 tropical forest extended almost up to the dilapidated building on one side, whilst in front of it the ground fell away to a great lake, three miles away. A long range of green hills rose the other side of the water, and everywhere clear little brooks93 gurgled down to the lake.
I liked the place, in spite of its intense heat, and stayed there over a fortnight, helping94 with the cattle, and making myself as useful as I could in repairing what the "wasters" had allowed to go to ruin. They reposed95 meanwhile in their hammocks.
It was very pretty country, and had the immense advantage of being free from mosquitoes. As there are disadvantages everywhere, to make up for this it crawled with snakes.
Jardine's culinary operations were simplicity96 itself. He had some immense earthen jars four feet high, own brothers to those seen on the stage in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" at pantomime time. These must have been the identical jars in which the Forty Thieves concealed97 themselves, to be smothered98 with boiling oil by the crafty99 Morgiana. By the way, I never could understand until I had seen fields of growing sesame in India why Ali Baba's brother should have mistaken the talisman100 words "Open Sesame" for "Open Barley101." The two grains are very similar in appearance whilst growing, which explains it.
Jardine placed a layer of beef at the bottom of his jar. On that he put a layer of mandioca (the
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root from which tapioca is prepared), another layer of his own bacon, and a stratum102 of green vegetables. Then more beef, and so on till the jar was half full. In went a handful of salt, two handfuls of red peppers, and two gallons of water, and then a wood fire was built round the pot, which simmered away day and night till all its contents were eaten. The old Indian woman baked delicious bread from the root of the mandioca mixed with milk and cheese, and that constituted our entire dietary. There were no fixed103 meals. Should you require food, you took a hunch104 of mandioca bread and a tin dipper, and went to the big earthen jar simmering amongst its embers in the yard. Should you wish for soup, you put the dipper in at the top; if you preferred stew, you pushed it to the bottom. Nothing could be simpler. As a rough and ready way of feeding a household it had its advantages, though there was unquestionably a certain element of monotony about it.
As a variation from the eternal beef and mandioca, Jardine begged Dick and myself to shoot him as many snipe as possible, in the swamps near the big lake. Those swamps were most attractive, and were simply alive with snipe and every sort of living creature. Dick was an excellent shot, and we got from five to fifteen couple of snipe daily. The tree-crowned hillocks in the swamp were the haunts of macaws, great gaudy105, screaming, winged rainbows of green and scarlet106, and orange and blue, like some of Dick's blazers endowed with feathers
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and motion. We had neither of us ever seen wild macaws before, and I am afraid that we shot a good many for the sheer pleasure of examining these garish107 parrots at close quarters, though they are quite uneatable. I shall carry all my life marks on my left hand where a macaw bit me to the bone. There were great brilliant-plumaged toucans108 too, droll109 freaks of nature, with huge horny bills nearly as large as their bodies, given them to crack the nuts on which they feed. They flashed swiftly pink through the air, but we never succeeded in getting one. Then there were coypus, the great web-footed South American water-rat, called "nutria" in Spanish, and much prized for his fur. That marsh110 was one of the most interesting places I have ever been in. The old Indian woman warned us that we should both infallibly die of fever were we to go into the swamps at nightfall, but though Dick and I were there every evening for a fortnight, up to our middles in water, we neither of us took the smallest harm, probably owing to the temporary absence of mosquitoes. The teeming111 hidden wild-life of the place appealed to us both irresistibly. The water-hog, or capincho, is a quaint beast, peculiar to South America. They are just like gigantic varnished112 glossy-black guinea pigs, with the most idiotically stupid expression on their faces. They are quite defenceless, and are the constant prey114 of alligators115 and jaguars116. Consequently they are very timid. These creatures live in the water all day, but come out in the evenings
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to feed on the reeds and water-herbage. By concealing117 ourselves amongst the reeds, and keeping perfectly still, we were able to see these uncouth118, shy things emerging from their day hiding-places and begin browsing119 on the marsh plants. To see a very wary120 animal at close quarters, knowing that he is unconscious of your presence, is perfectly fascinating. We never attempted to shoot or hurt these capinchos; the pleasure of seeing the clumsy gambols121 of one of the most timid animals living, in its fancied security, was quite enough. The capincho if caught very young makes a delightful122 pet, for he becomes quite tame, and, being an affectionate animal, trots123 everywhere after his master, with a sort of idiotic113 simper on his face.
One evening, on our return from the marsh, we were ill-advised enough to attempt a short cut home through the forest. The swift tropical night fell as we entered the forest, and in half an hour we were hopelessly lost, "fairly bushed," as Dick put it. There is a feeling of complete and utter helplessness in finding oneself on a pitch-dark night in a virgin tropical forest that is difficult to express in words. The impenetrable tangles124 of jungle; the great lianes hanging from the trees, which trip you up at every step; the masses of thorny126 and spiky127 things that hold you prisoner; and, as regards myself personally, the knowledge that the forest was full of snakes, all make one realise that electric-lighted Piccadilly has its distinct advantages. Dick had the true Australian's indifference128 to snakes. He never
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could understand my openly-avowed terror of these evil, death-dealing creatures, nor could he explain to himself the physical repugnance129 I have to these loathsome130 reptiles131. This instinctive132 horror of snakes is, I think, born in some people. It can hardly be due to atavism, for the episode of the Garden of Eden is too remote to account of an inherited antipathy133 to these gliding134, crawling abominations. We settled that we should have to sleep in the forest till daylight came, though, dripping wet as we both were from the swamp, it was a fairly direct invitation to malarial135 fever. The resourceful Dick got an inspiration, and dragging his interminable length (he was like Euclid's definition of a straight line) up a high tree, he took a good look at the familiar stars of his own Southern hemisphere. Getting his bearings from these, he also got our direction, and after a little more tree-climbing we reached our dilapidated temporary home in safety. I fear that I shall never really conquer my dislike to snakes, sharks, and earthquakes.
Jardine was a great and an omnivorous136 reader. Dick too was very fond of reading. Like the hero of "Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour" he carried his own library with him. As in Mr. Sponge's case, it consisted of one book only, but in the place of being "Mogg's Cab Fares," it was a guide to the Australian Turf, a sort of Southern Cross "Ruff's Guide," with a number of pedigrees of Australian horses thrown in. Dick's great intellectual amusement was learning these pedigrees by heart. I used
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to hear them for him, and, having a naturally retentive137 memory, could in the "'eighties" have passed a very creditable examination in the pedigrees of the luminaries138 of the Australian Turf.
Our evenings at Patiño Cué would have amused a spectator, had there been one. In the tumble-down, untidy apology for a room, Jardine, seated on a packing-case under the one wall light, was immersed in his favourite Herbert Spencer; looking, in his flowing ponchos139, long grey beard, and bare legs, like a bespectacled apostle. He always seemed to me to require an eagle, or a lion or some other apostolic adjunct, in order to look complete. I, on another packing-case, was chuckling140 loudly over "Monsieur et Madame Cardinal," though Paris seemed remote from Paraguay. Dick, pulling at a green cigar, a far-off look in his young eyes, was improving his mind by learning some further pedigrees of Australian horses, at full length on the floor, where he found more room for his thin, endless legs; whilst the two "wasters" dozed141 placidly142 in their hammocks on the verandah. The "wasters," I should imagine, attended church but seldom. Otherwise they ought to have ejaculated "We have left undone143 those things which we ought to have done" with immense fervour, for they never did anything at all.
"Lotos-eaters" might be a more poetic144 name than "wasters," for if ever there was a land "in which it seemed always afternoon," that land is Paraguay. Could one conceive of the "wasters" displaying
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such unwonted energy, it is possible that—
"And all at once they sang 'Our island home
Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam'."
They had eaten of the Lotos-fruit abundantly, and in the golden sunshine of Paraguay, and amidst its waving green palms, they only wished—
"In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined."
I accordingly went up the river to Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, five days distant from Buenos Ayres by steamer. A short account of that primitive little inland Republic in the days before it was linked up with Argentina by railway may prove of interest, for it was unlike anything else, with its stately two hundred-year-old relics9 of the old Spanish civilisation10 mixed up with the roughest of modern makeshifts. The vast majority of the people were Guaranis, of pure Indian blood and speech. The little State was so isolated11 from the rest of the world that the nineteenth century
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had touched it very lightly. Since its independence Paraguay had suffered under the rule of a succession of Dictator Presidents, the worst of whom was Francisco Lopez, usually known as Tyrant12 Lopez. This ignorant savage13 aspired14 to be the Napoleon of South America, and in 1864 declared war simultaneously15 on Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic. The war continued till 1870, when, fortunately, Lopez was killed, but the population of Paraguay had diminished from one and a quarter million to four hundred thousand people, nearly all the males being killed. In my time there were seven women to every male of the population.
The journey up the mighty16 Paraná is very uninteresting, for these huge rivers are too broad for the details on either shore to be seen clearly. After the steamer had turned up the Paraguay river on the verge17 of the tropics, it became less monotonous18. The last Argentine town is Formosa, a little place of thatched shanties19 clustered under groves20 of palms. We arrived there at night, and remained three hours. I shall never forget the eerie21, uncanny effect of seeing for the first time Paraguayan women, with a white petticoat, and a white sheet over their heads as their sole garments, flitting noiselessly along on bare feet under the palms in the brilliant moonlight. They looked like hooded22 silent ghosts, and reminded me irresistibly23 of the fourth act of "Robert le Diable," when the ghosts of the nuns24 arise out of their cloister25 graves at Bertram's command. They did not though as
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in the opera, break into a glittering ballet.
On board the steamer there was a young globe-trotting Australian. He was a nice, cheery lad, and, like most Australians, absolutely natural and unaffected. As he spoke26 no Spanish, he was rather at a loose end, and we agreed to foregather.
Asuncion was really a curiosity in the way of capitals. Lopez the Tyrant suffered from megalomania, as others rulers have done since his day. He began to construct many imposing27 buildings, but finished none of them. He had built a huge palace on the model of the Tuileries on a bluff28 over the river. It looked very imposing, but had no roof and no inside. He had also begun a great mausoleum for members of the Lopez family, but that again had only a façade, and was already crumbling29 to ruin. The rest of the town consisted principally of mud and bamboo shanties, thatched with palm. The streets were unpaved, and in the main street a strong spring gushed30 up. Everyone rode; there was but one wheeled vehicle in Asuncion, and that was only used for weddings and funerals. The inhabitants spoke of their one carriage as we should speak of something absolutely unique of its kind, say the statue of the Venus de Milo, or of some rare curiosity, such as a great auk's egg, or a twopenny blue Mauritius postage stamp, or a real live specimen31 of the dodo.
Nothing could be rougher than the accommodation Howard, the young Australian, and I found at the hotel. We were shown into a very dirty brick-paved
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room containing eight beds. We washed unabashed at the fountain in the patio32, as there were no other facilities for ablutions at all, and the bare-footed, shirtless waiter addressed us each by our Christian33 names tout34 court, at once, omitting the customary "Don." The Spanish forms of Christian names are more melodious35 than ours, and Howard failed to recognize his homely36 name of "Dick" in "Ricardo."
As South American men become moustached and bearded very early in life, I think that our clean-shaved faces, to which they were not accustomed, led the people to imagine us both much younger than we really were, for I was then twenty-seven, and the long-legged Dick was twenty-one. Never have I known anyone laugh so much as that light-hearted Australian boy. He was such a happy, merry, careless creature, brimful of sheer joy at being alive, and if he had never cultivated his brains much, he atoned37 for it by being able to do anything he liked with his hands and feet. He could mend and repair anything, from a gun to a fence; he could cook, and use a needle and thread as skilfully38 as he could a stock-whip. I took a great liking39 to this lean, sun-browned, pleasant-faced lad with the merry laugh and the perfectly40 natural manner; we got on together as though we had known each other all our lives, in fact we were addressing one another by our Christian names on the third day of our acquaintance.
Dick was a most ardent41 cricketer, and his
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baggage seemed to consist principally of a large and varied42 assortment43 of blazers of various Australian athletic44 clubs. He insisted on wearing one of these, a quiet little affair of mauve, blue, and pink stripes, and our first stroll through Asuncion became a sort of triumphal progress. The inhabitants flocked out of their houses, loud in their admiration45 of the "Gringo's" (all foreigners are "Gringos" in South America) tasteful raiment. So much so that I began to grow jealous, and returning to the hotel, I borrowed another of Howard's blazers (if my memory serves me right, that of the "Wonga-Wonga Wallabies"), an artistic46 little garment of magenta47, orange, and green stripes. We then sauntered about Asuncion, arm-in-arm, to the delirious48 joy of the populace. We soon had half the town at our heels, enthusiastic over these walking rainbows from the mysterious lands outside Paraguay. These people were as inquisitive49 as children, and plied50 us with perpetual questions. Since Howard could not speak Spanish, all the burden of conversation fell on me. As I occupied an official position, albeit51 a modest one, I thought it best to sink my identity, and became temporarily a citizen of the United States, Mr. Dwight P. Curtis, of Hicksville, Pa., and I gave my hearers the most glowing and rose-coloured accounts of the enterprise and nascent52 industries of this progressive but, I fear, wholly imaginary spot. I can only trust that no Paraguayan left his native land to seek his fortune in Hicksville, Pa., for he might
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have had to search the State of Pennsylvania for some time before finding it.
I have already recounted, earlier in these reminiscences, how the Paraguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs received me, and that his Excellency on that occasion dispensed54 not only with shoes and stockings, but with a shirt as well. He was, however, like most people in Spanish-speaking lands, courtesy itself.
Dick Howard having heard that there was some races in a country town six miles away, was, like a true Australian, wild to go to them. Encouraged by our phenomenal success of the previous day, we arrayed ourselves in two new Australian blazers, and rode out to the races, Howard imploring55 me all the way to use my influence to let him have a mount there.
The races were very peculiar56. The course was short, only about three furlongs, and perfectly straight. Only two horses ran at once, so the races were virtually a succession of "heats," but the excitement and betting were tremendous. The jockeys were little Indian boys, and their "colours" consisted of red, blue, or green bathing drawers. Otherwise they were stark57 naked, and, of course, bare-legged. The jockey's principal preoccupation seemed to be either to kick the opposing jockey in the face, or to crack him over the head with the heavy butts58 of their raw-hide whips. Howard still wanted to ride. I pointed59 out to him the impossibility of exhibiting to the public
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his six feet of lean young Australian in nothing but a pair of green bathing drawers. He answered that if he could only get a mount he would be quite willing to dispense53 with the drawers even. Howard also had a few remarks to offer about the Melbourne Cup, and Flemington Racecourse, and was not wholly complimentary60 to this Paraguayan country meeting. The ladies present were nearly all bare-foot, and clad in the invariable white petticoat and sheet. It was not in the least like the Royal enclosure at Ascot, yet they had far more on, and appeared more becomingly dressed than many of the ladies parading in that sacrosanct61 spot in this year of grace 1919. Every single woman, and every child, even infants of the tenderest age, had a green Paraguayan cigar in their mouths.
These Paraguayan women were as beautifully built as classical statues; with exquisitely62 moulded little hands and feet. Their "attaches," as the French term the wrist and ankles, were equally delicately formed. They were "tea with plenty of milk in it" colour, and though their faces were not pretty, they moved with such graceful63 dignity that the general impression they left was a very pleasing one.
Our blazers aroused rapturous enthusiasm. I am sure that the members of the "St. Kilda Wanderers" would have forgiven me for masquerading in their colours, could they have witnessed the terrific success I achieved in my tasteful, if brilliant, borrowed plumage.
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Asuncion pleased me. This quaint little capital, stranded64 in its backwater in the very heart of the South American Continent, was so remote from all the interests and movements of the modern world. The big three-hundred-year cathedral bore the unmistakable dignified65 stamp of the old Spanish "Conquistadores." It contained an altar-piece of solid silver reaching from floor to roof. How Lopez must have longed to melt that altar-piece down for his own use! Round the cathedral were some old houses with verandahs supported on palm trunks, beautifully carved in native patterns by Indians under the direction of the Jesuits. The Jesuits had also originally introduced the orange tree into Paraguay, where it had run wild all over the country, producing delicious fruit, which for some reason was often green, instead of being of the familiar golden colour.
Everyone envies what they do not possess. On the Continent cafés are sometimes decorated with pictures of palms and luxuriant tropical vegetation, in order to give people of the frozen North an illusion of warmth.
In steaming Asuncion, on the other hand, the fashionable café was named, "The North Pole." Here an imaginative Italian artist with a deficient66 sense of perspective and curious ideas of colour had decorated the walls with pictures of icebergs67, snow, and Polar bears, thus affording the inhabitants of this stew68-pan of a town a delicious sense of arctic coolness. The "North Pole" was the
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only place in Paraguay where ice and iced drinks were to be procured69.
Being the height of the summer, the heat was almost unbearable70, and bathing in the river was risky71 on account of those hateful biting-fish. There was a spot two miles away, however, where a stream had been brought to the edge of the cliff overhanging the river, down which it dropped in a feathery cascade72, forming a large pool below it. Howard and I rode out every morning there to bathe and luxuriate in the cool water. The river made a great bend here, forming a bay half a mile wide. This bay was literally73 choked with Victoria regia, the giant water-lily, with leaves as big as tea-trays, and great pink flowers the size of cabbages. The lilies were in full bloom then, quite half a mile of them, and they were really a splendid sight. I seem somehow in this description of the Victoria regia to have been plagiarising the immortal74 Mrs. O'Dowd, of "Vanity Fair," in her account of the glories of the hot-houses at her "fawther's" seat of Glenmalony.
Few people now remember a fascinating book of the "'eighties," "The Cruise of the Falcon," recounting how six amateurs sailed a twenty-ton yacht from Southampton to Asuncion in Paraguay. Three of her crew got so bitten with Paraguay that they determined75 to remain there. We met one of these adventurers by chance in Asuncion, Captain Jardine, late of the P. and O. service, an elderly man. He invited us to visit them at
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Patiño Cué, the place where they had settled down, some twenty-five miles from the capital, though he warned us that we should find things extremely rough there, and that there was not one single stick of furniture in the house. He asked us to bring out our own hammocks and blankets, as well as our guns and saddles, the saddle being in my time an invariable item of a traveller's baggage.
Dick and I accordingly bought grass-plaited hammocks and blankets, and started two days later, "humping our swags," as the Australian picturesquely76 expressed the act of carrying our own possessions. That colour-loving youth had donned a different blazer, probably that of the "Coolgardie Cockatoos." It would have put Joseph's coat of many colours completely in the shade any day of the week, and attracted a great deal of flattering attention.
The ambitious Lopez had insisted on having a railway in his State, to show how progressive he was, so a railway was built. It ran sixty miles from Asuncion to nowhere in particular, and no one ever wanted to travel by it; still it was unquestionably a railway. To give a finishing touch to this, Lopez had constructed a railway station big enough to accommodate the traffic of Paddington. It was, of course, not finished, but was quite large enough for its one train a day. The completed portion was imposing with columns and statues, the rest tailed off to nothing. Here, to our amazement78, we found a train composed of
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English rolling-stock, with an ancient engine built in Manchester, and, more wonderful to say, with an Englishman as engine-driver. The engine not having been designed for burning wood, the fire-box was too small, and the driver found it difficult to keep up steam with wood, as we found out during our journey. We travelled in a real English first-class carriage of immense antiquity79, blue cloth and all. So decrepit80 was it that when the speed of the train exceeded five miles an hour (which was but seldom) the roof and sides parted company, and gaped81 inches apart. We seldom got up the gradients at the first or second try, but of course allowances must be made for a Paraguayan railway. Lopez had built Patiño Cué, for which we were bound, as a country-house for himself. He had not, of course, finished it, but had insisted on his new railway running within a quarter of a mile of his house, which we found very convenient.
I could never have imagined such a curious establishment as the one at Patiño Cué. The large stone house, for which Jardine paid the huge rent of £5 per annum, was tumbling to ruin. Three rooms only were fairly water-tight, but these had gaping82 holes in their roofs and sides, and the window frames had long since been removed. The fittings consisted of a few enamelled iron plates and mugs, and of one tin basin. Packing cases served as seats and tables, and hammocks were slung83 on hooks. Captain Jardine did all the cooking and ran the establishment; his two companions (Howard
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and I, for convenience's sake, simply termed them "the wasters") lay smoking in their hammocks all day, and did nothing whatever. I may add that "the wasters" supplied the whole financial backing. Jardine wore native dress, with bare legs and sandals, a poncho84 round his waist, and another over his shoulders. A poncho is merely a fringed brown blanket with hole cut in it for the head to pass through. With his long grey beard streaming over his flowing garments, Jardine looked like a neutral-tinted saint in a stained-glass window. It must be a matter for congratulation that, owing to the very circumstances of the case, saints in stained-glass windows are seldom called on to take violent exercise, otherwise their voluminous draperies would infallibly all fall off at the second step. Jardine was a highly educated and an interesting man, with a love for books on metaphysics and other abstruse85 subjects. He carried a large library about with him, all of which lay in untidy heaps on the floor. He was unquestionably more than a little eccentric. The "wasters" did not count in any way, unless cheques had to be written. The other members of the establishment were an old Indian woman who smoked perpetual cigars, and her grandson, a boy known as Lazarus, from a physical defect which he shared with a Biblical personage, on the testimony86 of the latter's sisters—you could have run a drag with that boy.
The settlers had started as ranchers; but the
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"wasters" had allowed the cattle to break loose and scatter87 all over the country. They had been too lazy to collect them, or to repair the broken fences, so just lay in their hammocks and smoked. There were some fifty acres of orange groves behind the house. The energetic Jardine had fenced these in, and, having bought a number of pigs, turned pork butcher. There was an abundance of fallen fruit for these pigs to fatten88 on, and Jardine had built a smoke-house, where he cured his orange-fed pork, and smoked it with lemon wood. His bacon and hams were super-excellent, and fetched good prices in Asuncion, where they were establishing quite a reputation.
Meanwhile, the "wasters" lay in their hammocks in the verandah and smoked. Jardine told me that one of them had not undressed or changed his clothes for six weeks, as it was far too much trouble. Judging from his appearance, he had not made use of soap and water either during that period.
Dick Howard proved a real "handy man." In two days this lengthy89, lean, sunburnt youth had rounded up and driven home the scattered90 cattle, and then set to work to mend and repair all the broken fences. He caught the horses daily, and milked the cows, an art I was never able myself to acquire, and made tea for himself in a "billy."
Patiño Cué was a wonderful site for a house. It stood high up on rolling open ground, surrounded by intensely green wooded knolls91. The
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virgin92 tropical forest extended almost up to the dilapidated building on one side, whilst in front of it the ground fell away to a great lake, three miles away. A long range of green hills rose the other side of the water, and everywhere clear little brooks93 gurgled down to the lake.
I liked the place, in spite of its intense heat, and stayed there over a fortnight, helping94 with the cattle, and making myself as useful as I could in repairing what the "wasters" had allowed to go to ruin. They reposed95 meanwhile in their hammocks.
It was very pretty country, and had the immense advantage of being free from mosquitoes. As there are disadvantages everywhere, to make up for this it crawled with snakes.
Jardine's culinary operations were simplicity96 itself. He had some immense earthen jars four feet high, own brothers to those seen on the stage in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" at pantomime time. These must have been the identical jars in which the Forty Thieves concealed97 themselves, to be smothered98 with boiling oil by the crafty99 Morgiana. By the way, I never could understand until I had seen fields of growing sesame in India why Ali Baba's brother should have mistaken the talisman100 words "Open Sesame" for "Open Barley101." The two grains are very similar in appearance whilst growing, which explains it.
Jardine placed a layer of beef at the bottom of his jar. On that he put a layer of mandioca (the
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root from which tapioca is prepared), another layer of his own bacon, and a stratum102 of green vegetables. Then more beef, and so on till the jar was half full. In went a handful of salt, two handfuls of red peppers, and two gallons of water, and then a wood fire was built round the pot, which simmered away day and night till all its contents were eaten. The old Indian woman baked delicious bread from the root of the mandioca mixed with milk and cheese, and that constituted our entire dietary. There were no fixed103 meals. Should you require food, you took a hunch104 of mandioca bread and a tin dipper, and went to the big earthen jar simmering amongst its embers in the yard. Should you wish for soup, you put the dipper in at the top; if you preferred stew, you pushed it to the bottom. Nothing could be simpler. As a rough and ready way of feeding a household it had its advantages, though there was unquestionably a certain element of monotony about it.
As a variation from the eternal beef and mandioca, Jardine begged Dick and myself to shoot him as many snipe as possible, in the swamps near the big lake. Those swamps were most attractive, and were simply alive with snipe and every sort of living creature. Dick was an excellent shot, and we got from five to fifteen couple of snipe daily. The tree-crowned hillocks in the swamp were the haunts of macaws, great gaudy105, screaming, winged rainbows of green and scarlet106, and orange and blue, like some of Dick's blazers endowed with feathers
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and motion. We had neither of us ever seen wild macaws before, and I am afraid that we shot a good many for the sheer pleasure of examining these garish107 parrots at close quarters, though they are quite uneatable. I shall carry all my life marks on my left hand where a macaw bit me to the bone. There were great brilliant-plumaged toucans108 too, droll109 freaks of nature, with huge horny bills nearly as large as their bodies, given them to crack the nuts on which they feed. They flashed swiftly pink through the air, but we never succeeded in getting one. Then there were coypus, the great web-footed South American water-rat, called "nutria" in Spanish, and much prized for his fur. That marsh110 was one of the most interesting places I have ever been in. The old Indian woman warned us that we should both infallibly die of fever were we to go into the swamps at nightfall, but though Dick and I were there every evening for a fortnight, up to our middles in water, we neither of us took the smallest harm, probably owing to the temporary absence of mosquitoes. The teeming111 hidden wild-life of the place appealed to us both irresistibly. The water-hog, or capincho, is a quaint beast, peculiar to South America. They are just like gigantic varnished112 glossy-black guinea pigs, with the most idiotically stupid expression on their faces. They are quite defenceless, and are the constant prey114 of alligators115 and jaguars116. Consequently they are very timid. These creatures live in the water all day, but come out in the evenings
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to feed on the reeds and water-herbage. By concealing117 ourselves amongst the reeds, and keeping perfectly still, we were able to see these uncouth118, shy things emerging from their day hiding-places and begin browsing119 on the marsh plants. To see a very wary120 animal at close quarters, knowing that he is unconscious of your presence, is perfectly fascinating. We never attempted to shoot or hurt these capinchos; the pleasure of seeing the clumsy gambols121 of one of the most timid animals living, in its fancied security, was quite enough. The capincho if caught very young makes a delightful122 pet, for he becomes quite tame, and, being an affectionate animal, trots123 everywhere after his master, with a sort of idiotic113 simper on his face.
One evening, on our return from the marsh, we were ill-advised enough to attempt a short cut home through the forest. The swift tropical night fell as we entered the forest, and in half an hour we were hopelessly lost, "fairly bushed," as Dick put it. There is a feeling of complete and utter helplessness in finding oneself on a pitch-dark night in a virgin tropical forest that is difficult to express in words. The impenetrable tangles124 of jungle; the great lianes hanging from the trees, which trip you up at every step; the masses of thorny126 and spiky127 things that hold you prisoner; and, as regards myself personally, the knowledge that the forest was full of snakes, all make one realise that electric-lighted Piccadilly has its distinct advantages. Dick had the true Australian's indifference128 to snakes. He never
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could understand my openly-avowed terror of these evil, death-dealing creatures, nor could he explain to himself the physical repugnance129 I have to these loathsome130 reptiles131. This instinctive132 horror of snakes is, I think, born in some people. It can hardly be due to atavism, for the episode of the Garden of Eden is too remote to account of an inherited antipathy133 to these gliding134, crawling abominations. We settled that we should have to sleep in the forest till daylight came, though, dripping wet as we both were from the swamp, it was a fairly direct invitation to malarial135 fever. The resourceful Dick got an inspiration, and dragging his interminable length (he was like Euclid's definition of a straight line) up a high tree, he took a good look at the familiar stars of his own Southern hemisphere. Getting his bearings from these, he also got our direction, and after a little more tree-climbing we reached our dilapidated temporary home in safety. I fear that I shall never really conquer my dislike to snakes, sharks, and earthquakes.
Jardine was a great and an omnivorous136 reader. Dick too was very fond of reading. Like the hero of "Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour" he carried his own library with him. As in Mr. Sponge's case, it consisted of one book only, but in the place of being "Mogg's Cab Fares," it was a guide to the Australian Turf, a sort of Southern Cross "Ruff's Guide," with a number of pedigrees of Australian horses thrown in. Dick's great intellectual amusement was learning these pedigrees by heart. I used
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to hear them for him, and, having a naturally retentive137 memory, could in the "'eighties" have passed a very creditable examination in the pedigrees of the luminaries138 of the Australian Turf.
Our evenings at Patiño Cué would have amused a spectator, had there been one. In the tumble-down, untidy apology for a room, Jardine, seated on a packing-case under the one wall light, was immersed in his favourite Herbert Spencer; looking, in his flowing ponchos139, long grey beard, and bare legs, like a bespectacled apostle. He always seemed to me to require an eagle, or a lion or some other apostolic adjunct, in order to look complete. I, on another packing-case, was chuckling140 loudly over "Monsieur et Madame Cardinal," though Paris seemed remote from Paraguay. Dick, pulling at a green cigar, a far-off look in his young eyes, was improving his mind by learning some further pedigrees of Australian horses, at full length on the floor, where he found more room for his thin, endless legs; whilst the two "wasters" dozed141 placidly142 in their hammocks on the verandah. The "wasters," I should imagine, attended church but seldom. Otherwise they ought to have ejaculated "We have left undone143 those things which we ought to have done" with immense fervour, for they never did anything at all.
"Lotos-eaters" might be a more poetic144 name than "wasters," for if ever there was a land "in which it seemed always afternoon," that land is Paraguay. Could one conceive of the "wasters" displaying
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such unwonted energy, it is possible that—
"And all at once they sang 'Our island home
Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam'."
They had eaten of the Lotos-fruit abundantly, and in the golden sunshine of Paraguay, and amidst its waving green palms, they only wished—
"In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined."
I should perhaps add that "cafia," or sugar-cane spirit, is distilled145 in large quantities in Paraguay, and that one at least of the Lotos-eaters took a marked interest in this national product.
There were some beautiful nooks in the forest, more especially one deep blue rocky pool into which a foaming147 cascade pattered through a thick encircling fringe of wild orange trees. This little hollow was brimful of loveliness, with the golden balls of the fruit, and the brilliant purple tangles of some unknown creeper reflected in the blue pool. Dick and I spent hours there swimming, and basking148 puris naturalibus on the rocks, until the whole place was spoilt for me by a rustling149 in the grass, as a hateful ochre-coloured creature wriggled150 away in sinuous151 coils from my bare feet.
I accompanied Jardine once or twice to a little village some five miles away, where he got the few household stores he required. This tiny village was a piece of seventeenth-century Spain, dumped bodily down amid the riotous152 greenery of Paraguay. Round
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a tall white church in the florid Jesuit style, a few beautiful Spanish stone houses clustered, each with its tangle125 of tropical garden. There was not one single modern erection to spoil the place. Here foaming bowls of chocolate were to be had, and delicious mandioca bread. It was a picturesque77, restful little spot, so utterly153 unexpected in the very heart of the South American Continent. I should like to put on the stage that tall white church tower cutting into the intense blue of the sky above, with the vivid green of the feathery palms reaching to its belfry, and the time-worn houses round it peeping out from thickets154 of scarlet poinsettias and hibiscus flowers. It would make a lovely setting for "Cavalleria Rusticana," for instance.
I never regretted my stay at Patiño Cué. It gave one a glimpse of life brought down to conditions of bed-rock simplicity, and of types of character I had never come across before.
We travelled back to Asuncion on the engine of the train; I seated in front on the cow-catcher, Dick, his coat off and his shirt-sleeves rolled back, on the footplate, officiating as amateur fireman.
This vigorous young Antipodean hurled155 logs into the fire-box of the venerable "Vesuvius" as fast as though he were pitching in balls when practising his bowling156 at the nets, with the result that the crazy old engine attained157 a speed that must have fairly amazed her. When we stopped at stations, "Vesuvius" had developed such a head of steam that she nearly blew her safety-valve off,
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and steam hissed158 from twenty places in her leaky joints159. One ought never to be astonished at misplaced affections. I have seen old ladies lavish160 a wealth of tenderness on fat, asthmatical, and wholly repellent pugs, so I ought not to have been surprised at the immense pride the English driver took in his antique engine. I am bound to say that he kept her beautifully cleaned and burnished161. His face beamed at her present performance, and he assured me that with a little coaxing162 he could knock sixty miles an hour out of "Vesuvius." I fear that this statement "werged on the poetical," as Mr. Weller senior remarked on another occasion. I should much like to have known this man's history, and to have learnt how he had drifted into driving an engine of this futile163, forlorn little Paraguayan railway. I suspect, from certain expressions he used, that he was a deserter from the Royal Navy, probably an ex-naval stoker. As Dick had ridden ten miles that morning to say good-bye to a lady, to whom he imagined himself devotedly164 attached, he was still very smart in white polo-breeches, brown butcher-boots and spurs, an unusual garb for a railway fireman. For the first time in the memory of the oldest living inhabitant, the train reached Asuncion an hour before her time.
The river steamers' cargo165 in their downstream trip consisted of cigars, "Yerba mate," and oranges. These last were shipped in bulk, and I should like a clever artist to have drawn166 our steamer, with tons and tons of fruit, golden,
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lemon-yellow, and green, piled on her decks. It made a glowing bit of colour. The oranges were the only things in that steamer that smelt167 pleasantly.
I can never understand why "Yerba mate," or Paraguayan tea, has never become popular in England. It is prepared from the leaves of the ilex, and is strongly aromatic168 and very stimulating169. I am myself exceedingly fond of it. Its lack of popularity may be due to the fact that it cannot be drunk in a cup, but must be sucked from a gourd170 through a perforated tube. It can (like most other things) be bought in London, if you know where to go to.
At Buenos Ayres I was quite sorry to part with the laughing, lanky171 Australian lad who had been such a pleasant travelling companion, and who seemed able to do anything he liked with his arms and legs. I expect that he could have done most things with his brains too, had he ever given them a chance. Howard's great merit was that he took things as they came, and never grumbled172 at the discomforts173 and minor hardships one must expect in a primitive country like Paraguay. Our tastes as regards wild things (with the possible exception of snakes) rather seemed to coincide, and, neither of us being town-bred, we did not object to rather elementary conditions.
I will own that I was immensely gratified at receiving an overseas letter some eight years later from Dick, telling me that he was married and had a little daughter, and asking
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me to stand godfather for his first child.
My blue satin bedroom looked more ridiculously incongruous than ever after the conditions to which I had been used at Patiño Cué.
The River Plate is over twenty miles broad at Buenos Ayres, and it is not easy to realise that this great expansive is all fresh water. The "Great Silver River" is, however, very shallow, except in mid-channel. Some twenty-five miles from the city it forms on its southern bank a great archipelago of wooded islands interspersed174 with hundreds of winding175 channels, some of them deep enough to carry ocean-going steamers. This is known as the Tigre, and its shady tree-lined waterways are a great resort during the sweltering heat of an Argentine summer. It is the most ideal place for boating, and boasts a very flourishing English Rowing Club, with a large fleet of light Thames-built boats. Here during the summer months I took the roughest of rough bungalows176, with two English friends. The three-roomed shanty177 was raised on high piles, out of reach of floods, and looked exactly like the fishermen's houses one sees lining178 the rivers in native villages in the Malay States. During the intense heat of January the great delight of life at the Tigre was the midnight swim in the river before turning in. The Tigre is too far south for the alligators, biting-fish, electric rays (I allude179 to fish; not to beams of light), or other water-pests which Nature has lavished180 on the tropics in order to counteract181 their irresistible182 charm—and to prevent the whole world from
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settling down there. The water of the Tigre was so warm that one could remain in it over an hour. One mental picture I am always able to conjure183 up, and I can at will imagine myself at midnight paddling lazily down-stream on my back through the milk-warm water, in the scented184 dusk, looking up at the pattern formed by the leaves of the overhanging trees against the night sky; a pattern of black lace-work against the polished silver of the Southern moonlight, whilst the water lapped gently against the banks, and an immense joy at being alive filled one's heart.
I went straight from Buenos Ayres to Canada on a tramp steamer, and a month after leaving the Plate found myself in the backwoods of the Province of Quebec, on a short but very famous river running into the Bay of Chaleurs, probably the finest salmon river in the world, and I was fortunate enough to hook and to land a 28 lb. salmon before I had been there one hour. No greater contrast in surroundings can be imagined. In the place of the dead-flat, treeless levels of Southern Argentina, there were dense185 woods of spruce, cedar186, and var, climbing the hills as far as the eye could see. Instead of the superficially courteous187 Argentine gaucho188, with his air of half-concealed contempt for the "Gringo," and the ever-ready knife, prepared to leap from his waist-belt at the slightest provocation189, there were the blunt, outspoken190, hearty191 Canadian canoe-men, all of them lumbermen during the winter months. The fishing was ideal, and the
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fish ran uniformly large and fought like Trojans in the heavy water, but, unfortunately, every single winged insect on the North American Continent had arranged for a summer holiday on this same river at the same time. There they all were in their myriads192; black-flies, sand-flies, and mosquitoes, all enjoying themselves tremendously. By day one was devoured193 by black-flies, who drew blood every time they bit. At nightfall the black-flies very considerately retired194 to rest, and the little sand-flies took their place. The mosquitoes took no rest whatever. These rollicking insects were always ready to turn night into day, or day into night, indiscriminately, provided there were some succulent humans to feed on. A net will baffle the mosquito, but for the sand-flies the only effective remedy was a "smudge" burning in an iron pail. A "smudge" is a fire of damp fir bark, which smoulders but does not blaze. It also emits huge volumes of smoke. We dined every night in an atmosphere denser195 than a thick London fog, and the coughing was such that a chance visitor would have imagined that he had strayed into a sanatorium for tuberculosis196.
Things are done expeditiously197 in Canada. The ground had been cleared, the wooden house in which we lived erected198, and the rough track through the forest made, all in eight weeks.
No one who has not tried it can have any idea of the intense cold of the water in these short Canadian rivers. Their course is so short, and they
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are so overhung with fir trees, that the fierce rays of a Canadian summer sun hardly touch them, so the water remains199 about ten degrees above freezing point. It would have been impossible to swim our river. Even a short dip of half a minute left one with gasping200 breath and chattering201 teeth.
I was surprised to find, too, that a Canadian forest is far more impenetrable than a tropical one. Here, the fallen trees and decay of countless202 centuries have formed a thick crust some two or three feet above the real soil. This moss-grown crust yields to the weight of a man and lets him through, so walking becomes infinitely203 difficult, and practically impossible. To extricate204 yourself at every step from three feet of decaying rubbish is very exhausting. In the tropics, that great forcing-house, this decaying vegetable matter would have given life to new and exuberant205 growths; but not so in Canada, frost-bound for four months of the twelve. Two-foot-wide tracks had been cut through the forest along the river, and the trees there were "blazed" (i.e., notched206, so as to show up white where the bark had been hacked207 off), to indicate the direction of the trails; otherwise it would have been impossible to make one's way through the débris of a thousand years for more than a few yards.
I never saw such a wealth of wild fruit as on the banks of this Canadian stream. Wild strawberries and raspberries grew in such profusion208 that a bucketful of each could be filled in half an hour.
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There was plenty of animal life too. A certain pretty little black and white striped beast was quite disagreeably common. This attractive cat-like little creature was armed with stupendous offensive powers, as all who have experienced a skunk's unspeakably disgusting odour will acknowledge. Unless molested209, they did not make use of the terrible possibilities they had at their command. There were also plenty of wandering black bears. These animals live for choice on grain and berries, and are not hostile to man without provocation, but they have enormous strength, and it is a good working rule to remember that it is unwise ever to vex210 a bear unnecessarily, even a mild-tempered black bear.
Our tumbling, roaring Canadian river cutting its way through rounded, densely-wooded hills was wonderfully pretty, and one could not but marvel211 at the infinitely varied beauty with which Providence212 has clothed this world of ours, wherever man has not defaced Nature's perfect craftsmanship213.
The point of view of the country-bred differs widely from that of the town dweller214 in this respect.
Here is a splendid waterfall, churning itself into whirling cataracts215 of foam146 down the face of a jagged cliff. The townsman cries, "What tremendous power is running to waste here! Let us harness it quickly. We will divert the falls into hideous216 water-pipes, and bring them to our turbines. We will build a power-house cheaply of corrugated217 iron, and in time we shall so develop
{304}
this sleepy countryside that no one will recognise it."
Here is a great forest; a joy to the eyes. "The price of timber is rising; let us quickly raze218 it to the ground."
"Our expert tells us that under this lovely valley there runs a thick seam of coal. We will sink shafts219, and build blatantly220 hideous towns and factories, pollute this clear air with smoke and mephitic vapours, and then fall down and worship the great god Progress. We will also pocket fat dividends221."
The stupid, unprogressive son of woods and green fields shudders222 at such things; the son of asphalte, stuffy223 streets, tramways, and arc lights glories in them.
Like many other things, it all depends on the point of view.
There were some beautiful nooks in the forest, more especially one deep blue rocky pool into which a foaming147 cascade pattered through a thick encircling fringe of wild orange trees. This little hollow was brimful of loveliness, with the golden balls of the fruit, and the brilliant purple tangles of some unknown creeper reflected in the blue pool. Dick and I spent hours there swimming, and basking148 puris naturalibus on the rocks, until the whole place was spoilt for me by a rustling149 in the grass, as a hateful ochre-coloured creature wriggled150 away in sinuous151 coils from my bare feet.
I accompanied Jardine once or twice to a little village some five miles away, where he got the few household stores he required. This tiny village was a piece of seventeenth-century Spain, dumped bodily down amid the riotous152 greenery of Paraguay. Round
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a tall white church in the florid Jesuit style, a few beautiful Spanish stone houses clustered, each with its tangle125 of tropical garden. There was not one single modern erection to spoil the place. Here foaming bowls of chocolate were to be had, and delicious mandioca bread. It was a picturesque77, restful little spot, so utterly153 unexpected in the very heart of the South American Continent. I should like to put on the stage that tall white church tower cutting into the intense blue of the sky above, with the vivid green of the feathery palms reaching to its belfry, and the time-worn houses round it peeping out from thickets154 of scarlet poinsettias and hibiscus flowers. It would make a lovely setting for "Cavalleria Rusticana," for instance.
I never regretted my stay at Patiño Cué. It gave one a glimpse of life brought down to conditions of bed-rock simplicity, and of types of character I had never come across before.
We travelled back to Asuncion on the engine of the train; I seated in front on the cow-catcher, Dick, his coat off and his shirt-sleeves rolled back, on the footplate, officiating as amateur fireman.
This vigorous young Antipodean hurled155 logs into the fire-box of the venerable "Vesuvius" as fast as though he were pitching in balls when practising his bowling156 at the nets, with the result that the crazy old engine attained157 a speed that must have fairly amazed her. When we stopped at stations, "Vesuvius" had developed such a head of steam that she nearly blew her safety-valve off,
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and steam hissed158 from twenty places in her leaky joints159. One ought never to be astonished at misplaced affections. I have seen old ladies lavish160 a wealth of tenderness on fat, asthmatical, and wholly repellent pugs, so I ought not to have been surprised at the immense pride the English driver took in his antique engine. I am bound to say that he kept her beautifully cleaned and burnished161. His face beamed at her present performance, and he assured me that with a little coaxing162 he could knock sixty miles an hour out of "Vesuvius." I fear that this statement "werged on the poetical," as Mr. Weller senior remarked on another occasion. I should much like to have known this man's history, and to have learnt how he had drifted into driving an engine of this futile163, forlorn little Paraguayan railway. I suspect, from certain expressions he used, that he was a deserter from the Royal Navy, probably an ex-naval stoker. As Dick had ridden ten miles that morning to say good-bye to a lady, to whom he imagined himself devotedly164 attached, he was still very smart in white polo-breeches, brown butcher-boots and spurs, an unusual garb for a railway fireman. For the first time in the memory of the oldest living inhabitant, the train reached Asuncion an hour before her time.
The river steamers' cargo165 in their downstream trip consisted of cigars, "Yerba mate," and oranges. These last were shipped in bulk, and I should like a clever artist to have drawn166 our steamer, with tons and tons of fruit, golden,
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lemon-yellow, and green, piled on her decks. It made a glowing bit of colour. The oranges were the only things in that steamer that smelt167 pleasantly.
I can never understand why "Yerba mate," or Paraguayan tea, has never become popular in England. It is prepared from the leaves of the ilex, and is strongly aromatic168 and very stimulating169. I am myself exceedingly fond of it. Its lack of popularity may be due to the fact that it cannot be drunk in a cup, but must be sucked from a gourd170 through a perforated tube. It can (like most other things) be bought in London, if you know where to go to.
At Buenos Ayres I was quite sorry to part with the laughing, lanky171 Australian lad who had been such a pleasant travelling companion, and who seemed able to do anything he liked with his arms and legs. I expect that he could have done most things with his brains too, had he ever given them a chance. Howard's great merit was that he took things as they came, and never grumbled172 at the discomforts173 and minor hardships one must expect in a primitive country like Paraguay. Our tastes as regards wild things (with the possible exception of snakes) rather seemed to coincide, and, neither of us being town-bred, we did not object to rather elementary conditions.
I will own that I was immensely gratified at receiving an overseas letter some eight years later from Dick, telling me that he was married and had a little daughter, and asking
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me to stand godfather for his first child.
My blue satin bedroom looked more ridiculously incongruous than ever after the conditions to which I had been used at Patiño Cué.
The River Plate is over twenty miles broad at Buenos Ayres, and it is not easy to realise that this great expansive is all fresh water. The "Great Silver River" is, however, very shallow, except in mid-channel. Some twenty-five miles from the city it forms on its southern bank a great archipelago of wooded islands interspersed174 with hundreds of winding175 channels, some of them deep enough to carry ocean-going steamers. This is known as the Tigre, and its shady tree-lined waterways are a great resort during the sweltering heat of an Argentine summer. It is the most ideal place for boating, and boasts a very flourishing English Rowing Club, with a large fleet of light Thames-built boats. Here during the summer months I took the roughest of rough bungalows176, with two English friends. The three-roomed shanty177 was raised on high piles, out of reach of floods, and looked exactly like the fishermen's houses one sees lining178 the rivers in native villages in the Malay States. During the intense heat of January the great delight of life at the Tigre was the midnight swim in the river before turning in. The Tigre is too far south for the alligators, biting-fish, electric rays (I allude179 to fish; not to beams of light), or other water-pests which Nature has lavished180 on the tropics in order to counteract181 their irresistible182 charm—and to prevent the whole world from
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settling down there. The water of the Tigre was so warm that one could remain in it over an hour. One mental picture I am always able to conjure183 up, and I can at will imagine myself at midnight paddling lazily down-stream on my back through the milk-warm water, in the scented184 dusk, looking up at the pattern formed by the leaves of the overhanging trees against the night sky; a pattern of black lace-work against the polished silver of the Southern moonlight, whilst the water lapped gently against the banks, and an immense joy at being alive filled one's heart.
I went straight from Buenos Ayres to Canada on a tramp steamer, and a month after leaving the Plate found myself in the backwoods of the Province of Quebec, on a short but very famous river running into the Bay of Chaleurs, probably the finest salmon river in the world, and I was fortunate enough to hook and to land a 28 lb. salmon before I had been there one hour. No greater contrast in surroundings can be imagined. In the place of the dead-flat, treeless levels of Southern Argentina, there were dense185 woods of spruce, cedar186, and var, climbing the hills as far as the eye could see. Instead of the superficially courteous187 Argentine gaucho188, with his air of half-concealed contempt for the "Gringo," and the ever-ready knife, prepared to leap from his waist-belt at the slightest provocation189, there were the blunt, outspoken190, hearty191 Canadian canoe-men, all of them lumbermen during the winter months. The fishing was ideal, and the
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fish ran uniformly large and fought like Trojans in the heavy water, but, unfortunately, every single winged insect on the North American Continent had arranged for a summer holiday on this same river at the same time. There they all were in their myriads192; black-flies, sand-flies, and mosquitoes, all enjoying themselves tremendously. By day one was devoured193 by black-flies, who drew blood every time they bit. At nightfall the black-flies very considerately retired194 to rest, and the little sand-flies took their place. The mosquitoes took no rest whatever. These rollicking insects were always ready to turn night into day, or day into night, indiscriminately, provided there were some succulent humans to feed on. A net will baffle the mosquito, but for the sand-flies the only effective remedy was a "smudge" burning in an iron pail. A "smudge" is a fire of damp fir bark, which smoulders but does not blaze. It also emits huge volumes of smoke. We dined every night in an atmosphere denser195 than a thick London fog, and the coughing was such that a chance visitor would have imagined that he had strayed into a sanatorium for tuberculosis196.
Things are done expeditiously197 in Canada. The ground had been cleared, the wooden house in which we lived erected198, and the rough track through the forest made, all in eight weeks.
No one who has not tried it can have any idea of the intense cold of the water in these short Canadian rivers. Their course is so short, and they
{302}
are so overhung with fir trees, that the fierce rays of a Canadian summer sun hardly touch them, so the water remains199 about ten degrees above freezing point. It would have been impossible to swim our river. Even a short dip of half a minute left one with gasping200 breath and chattering201 teeth.
I was surprised to find, too, that a Canadian forest is far more impenetrable than a tropical one. Here, the fallen trees and decay of countless202 centuries have formed a thick crust some two or three feet above the real soil. This moss-grown crust yields to the weight of a man and lets him through, so walking becomes infinitely203 difficult, and practically impossible. To extricate204 yourself at every step from three feet of decaying rubbish is very exhausting. In the tropics, that great forcing-house, this decaying vegetable matter would have given life to new and exuberant205 growths; but not so in Canada, frost-bound for four months of the twelve. Two-foot-wide tracks had been cut through the forest along the river, and the trees there were "blazed" (i.e., notched206, so as to show up white where the bark had been hacked207 off), to indicate the direction of the trails; otherwise it would have been impossible to make one's way through the débris of a thousand years for more than a few yards.
I never saw such a wealth of wild fruit as on the banks of this Canadian stream. Wild strawberries and raspberries grew in such profusion208 that a bucketful of each could be filled in half an hour.
{303}
There was plenty of animal life too. A certain pretty little black and white striped beast was quite disagreeably common. This attractive cat-like little creature was armed with stupendous offensive powers, as all who have experienced a skunk's unspeakably disgusting odour will acknowledge. Unless molested209, they did not make use of the terrible possibilities they had at their command. There were also plenty of wandering black bears. These animals live for choice on grain and berries, and are not hostile to man without provocation, but they have enormous strength, and it is a good working rule to remember that it is unwise ever to vex210 a bear unnecessarily, even a mild-tempered black bear.
Our tumbling, roaring Canadian river cutting its way through rounded, densely-wooded hills was wonderfully pretty, and one could not but marvel211 at the infinitely varied beauty with which Providence212 has clothed this world of ours, wherever man has not defaced Nature's perfect craftsmanship213.
The point of view of the country-bred differs widely from that of the town dweller214 in this respect.
Here is a splendid waterfall, churning itself into whirling cataracts215 of foam146 down the face of a jagged cliff. The townsman cries, "What tremendous power is running to waste here! Let us harness it quickly. We will divert the falls into hideous216 water-pipes, and bring them to our turbines. We will build a power-house cheaply of corrugated217 iron, and in time we shall so develop
{304}
this sleepy countryside that no one will recognise it."
Here is a great forest; a joy to the eyes. "The price of timber is rising; let us quickly raze218 it to the ground."
"Our expert tells us that under this lovely valley there runs a thick seam of coal. We will sink shafts219, and build blatantly220 hideous towns and factories, pollute this clear air with smoke and mephitic vapours, and then fall down and worship the great god Progress. We will also pocket fat dividends221."
The stupid, unprogressive son of woods and green fields shudders222 at such things; the son of asphalte, stuffy223 streets, tramways, and arc lights glories in them.
Like many other things, it all depends on the point of view.
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1
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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6
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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extradition
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| n.引渡（逃犯） | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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9
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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10
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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11
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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12
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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13
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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14
aspired
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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16
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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18
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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19
shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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23
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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25
cloister
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| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
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26
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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27
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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28
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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29
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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30
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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31
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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32
patio
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| n.庭院，平台 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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36
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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37
atoned
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| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
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38
skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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39
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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40
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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41
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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42
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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43
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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44
athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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45
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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46
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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47
magenta
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| n..紫红色（的染料）；adj.紫红色的 | |
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48
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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49
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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50
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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51
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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52
nascent
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| adj.初生的，发生中的 | |
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53
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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54
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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55
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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56
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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57
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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58
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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59
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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60
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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61
sacrosanct
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| adj.神圣不可侵犯的 | |
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62
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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63
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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64
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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65
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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66
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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67
icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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68
stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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69
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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70
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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71
risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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72
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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73
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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74
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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75
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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76
picturesquely
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77
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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78
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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79
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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80
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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81
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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82
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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83
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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84
poncho
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| n.斗篷，雨衣 | |
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85
abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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86
testimony
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|
| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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87
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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88
fatten
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| v.使肥，变肥 | |
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89
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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90
scattered
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|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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91
knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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92
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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93
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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94
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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95
reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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96
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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97
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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98
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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99
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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100
talisman
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| n.避邪物，护身符 | |
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101
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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102
stratum
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| n.地层，社会阶层 | |
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103
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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104
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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105
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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106
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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107
garish
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| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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108
toucans
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| n.巨嘴鸟，犀鸟( toucan的名词复数 ) | |
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109
droll
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|
| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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110
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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111
teeming
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|
| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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112
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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113
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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114
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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115
alligators
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| n.短吻鳄( alligator的名词复数 ) | |
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116
jaguars
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| n.（中、南美洲的）美洲虎( jaguar的名词复数 ) | |
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117
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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118
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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119
browsing
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| v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息 | |
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120
wary
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|
| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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121
gambols
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的第三人称单数 ) | |
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122
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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123
trots
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| 小跑，急走( trot的名词复数 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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124
tangles
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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125
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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126
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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127
spiky
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| adj.长而尖的，大钉似的 | |
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128
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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129
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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130
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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131
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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132
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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133
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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134
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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135
malarial
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| 患疟疾的，毒气的 | |
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136
omnivorous
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|
| adj.杂食的 | |
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137
retentive
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|
| v.保留的，有记忆的；adv.有记性地，记性强地；n.保持力 | |
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138
luminaries
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|
| n.杰出人物，名人（luminary的复数形式） | |
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139
ponchos
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| n.斗篷( poncho的名词复数 ) | |
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140
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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141
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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142
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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143
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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144
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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145
distilled
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| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
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146
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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147
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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148
basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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149
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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150
wriggled
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|
| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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151
sinuous
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|
| adj.蜿蜒的，迂回的 | |
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152
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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153
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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154
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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155
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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156
bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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157
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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158
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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159
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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160
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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161
burnished
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|
| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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162
coaxing
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|
| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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163
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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164
devotedly
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| 专心地； 恩爱地； 忠实地； 一心一意地 | |
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165
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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166
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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167
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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168
aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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169
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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170
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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171
lanky
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| adj.瘦长的 | |
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172
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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173
discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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174
interspersed
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|
| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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175
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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176
bungalows
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| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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177
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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178
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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179
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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180
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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181
counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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182
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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183
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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184
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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185
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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186
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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187
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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188
gaucho
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| n. 牧人 | |
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189
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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190
outspoken
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| adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的 | |
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191
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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192
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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193
devoured
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|
| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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194
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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196
tuberculosis
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| n.结核病，肺结核 | |
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197
expeditiously
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| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
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198
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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199
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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200
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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201
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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202
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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203
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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204
extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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205
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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206
notched
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| a.有凹口的，有缺口的 | |
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207
hacked
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| 生气 | |
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208
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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209
molested
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| v.骚扰( molest的过去式和过去分词 )；干扰；调戏；猥亵 | |
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210
vex
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| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
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211
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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212
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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213
craftsmanship
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| n.手艺 | |
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214
dweller
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| n.居住者，住客 | |
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215
cataracts
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| n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障 | |
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216
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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217
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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218
raze
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| vt.铲平，把(城市、房屋等)夷为平地，拆毁 | |
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219
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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220
blatantly
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| ad.公开地 | |
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221
dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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222
shudders
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| n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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223
stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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