te dead. To the great joy
of Guapo and Leon, who sat by the bank watching, hundreds of the little
caribes, with their bronze gills quite open, and their yellow bellies
turned up, were seen among the rest.

But Guapo had not made this great slaughter purely out of revenge. He
had another object. They were not too well off for meat, and a dish of
fish would be welcome. Guapo and Don Pablo had already provided
themselves with long-handled nets, and they soon scooped out several
basketfuls of fish. Among others they netted numerous "caribes," for
these little monsters, fierce as they are, are not surpassed for
delicacy of flavour by any fish in the South American rivers. The
gymnoti approached the bank, where Guapo fished them out, not to
eat--although they are often eaten. There was not a spark of electricity
in them now. The barbasco had cured them of that; any one might have
handled them with safety, as there was not a charge left in their whole
battery.

The lake was quite cleared of all its dangerous denizens, and Leon might
bathe with safety, as soon as he got well; and over the fish-dinner they
could now laugh at the adventures both of Leon and the electrified mule.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE CINCHONA-TREES.

In about two weeks from their arrival in the valley, the house, with a
stable for the horse and mule, was completed, and all the necessary
furniture as well. Had you entered the establishment about this time,
you would have observed many odd articles and implements, most of them
quite new. You would have seen boxes woven out of palm leaves, and bags
made of the fibrous, cloth-like spathe of the "bussu," filled with the
soft, silky cotton of the bombax, to be afterwards spun and woven for
shirts and dresses.

You would have seen baskets of various shapes and sizes woven out of the
rind of the leaf-stalks of a singular palm called "Iu," which has no
stem, but only leaves of ten feet long, growing directly out of the
ground. You would have seen chairs made of split palms and bamboo, and a
good-sized table, upon which, at meal-time, might be noticed a
table-cloth, not of diaper, but, what served equally well, the broad
smooth silken leaves of the plantain. There were cups, too, and plates,
and bowls, and dishes, and bottles, of the light gourd-shell
(_Crescentia cujete_), some of the bottles holding useful liquids, and
corked with the elastic pith of a palm. Other vessels of a boat-shape
might be noticed.