an
antidote to the wourali poison. People, indeed, who eat salt with their
food are but little affected by it; while it quickly kills savages and
animals who do not eat salt.

We had seen as yet no signs of habitations, when Duppo stopped and
pointed through an opening in the trees. We saw, in the shade of the
wide-spreading boughs, a woman kneeling before a bath, in which a little
child was seated, splashing the water about with evident delight. The
woman was almost as primitive a costume as the warriors we had seen.
Her only ornament was a necklace, and her sole clothing consisted of a
somewhat scanty petticoat. She, however, seemed in no way abashed at
our presence. Duppo ran forward and said a few words to her, when,
rising from her knees, and lifting up her dripping child in her arms,
she advanced a few paces towards us. She seemed to be listening with
great interest to what Duppo was saying, and she then signed to us to
follow her. We did so, and soon came in sight of several bamboo huts.
The walls, as also the roofs, were covered with a thatch of palm-leaves.
On examining the thatch, I saw that it consisted of a number of leaves
plaited together, and secured in a row to a long lath of bamboo. One of
these laths, with a row of thatch attached to it, was hung up on pegs to
the lowest part of the wall intended to be covered; another was fastened
over it, the thatch covering the first lath; and so on, row after row,
till the upper part was reached. The roof was formed in the same
manner, secured by rope formed of aloe fibres or some similar material.
Round the village were numerous fruit-trees. The most conspicuous were
bananas, with their long, broad, soft, green leaf-blades; and several
pupunhas, or peach-palms, with their delicious fruit, hanging down in
enormous bunches from their lofty crowns, each a load for a strong man.
The fruit gains its name from its colour. It is dry and mealy, of the
taste of chestnuts and cheese. There were also a number of cotton and
coffee trees on one side, extending down to the water, which showed that
our friends were not ignorant of agriculture. We also saw melons
growing in abundance, as well as mandioca and Indian corn.

The lady conducted us into her house with as much dignity as a duchess
would have done into her palace. The interior of the building, however,
had no great pretensions to architectural grandeur. The roof was
supported by strong upright posts bet