iled. Such a
charge, _en masse_, even though friendly, might frighten the natives
away. So Akeley alone went down and assured the father and mother that
we were friendly and that nothing would harm them. And when he came back
it was to report that the parents and the little baby were peacefully
installed in their forest home again.

[Drawing: _She Threw Her Baby Away_]

Early in the morning we went down to see our strange friends. They had
greatly increased in number during the night. There were now one man,
two of his wives, an old woman, and eight children, and the tiny baby.
All fear had vanished, and they seemed certain that no harm was likely
to come to them.

The man was a good-looking, strongly built native with fine honest eyes.
The women were comely and the children positively handsome. I have never
seen such a healthy, fine-eyed, well-built assortment of childhood,
ranging all the way from three months up to eight or nine years of age.
He was the president of the Anti-Race Suicide Club. We gave them all
presents--beads to the children and brass wire to the women. We also
made up a little fund of rupees for the baby, although money seemed to
mean nothing to any of them. They had never seen white men before and
probably knew nothing of metal money. Beads and brass wire were the only
currency they knew. We tried to photograph them, but the shades in the
forest were deep and the light too was bad for successful pictures.

Little by little we got their story.

There was warfare between the forest people and the savage Kara Mojas to
the north. Neither side could ever tell when a band of the foe would
swoop down upon them, killing the men, stealing the sheep and seizing
the women. Only a few months before one of the Kara Mojas had come in
and stolen some sheep and in return our Wanderobo friend had sallied
forth, killed the Kara Moja, and captured his wife. It was the latter
who was now the mother of the little baby, and she seemed quite
reconciled to the change.

[Drawing: _The Wanderobos' Home_]

When, the night before, the little family around the camp-fire heard the
crashing of brushes and the hacking of underbrush and the shouts of our
porters they thought a great force of the Kara Mojas was upon them. So
they fled in terror. The baby cried, and, fearful that its wails would
betray their hiding-place, they had cast it away in the bushes. Then
they had fled into the depths of the forest and, huddled toget