I have never been
so thin before. If I had not come with you I should not be so thin. It is
all because we have no food that I am so thin.... If I had not met you I
would never have been so thin!"--and so on all day.

I reminded him that when we were travelling on the river he had
complained of baling the water out of the canoe and preferred to travel
overland; now that we were travelling overland he had a new complaint to
make. It was quite unreasonable. He was not the only one to get thin; we
were all getting thin.

Benedicto greatly objected to carry the 15 lb. weight of glass negatives,
but he did not mind at all carrying a lot of useless things of his own,
which weighed an extra 20 lb. or so!

Since my return I have been constantly asked why, when we were starving,
we did not eat the grass in the forest; why we did not feed on the leaves
or roots of the trees? If we could find no fruit, why did not we eat
monkeys or birds or other animals? why did not we dig for worms and feed
on them?

As I have already stated, there were no worms in the forest because of
the ants, which allow no insect to be underground near the surface. As
for the grass, it takes no very intelligent person to see that it cannot
exist under the trees of the tropical forest. If a few blades of grass
are to be found on the edge of streamlets it does not follow that you can
eat them. That grass is usually poisonous. The same may be said of the
leaves and roots of trees, even admitting that you could reach the
former--which is not the case, as the leaves are usually at a great
height upon the trees, and when you are starving you have not the
strength to climb up. It also follows that where there is no edible fruit
there can be no birds or monkeys, as animals generally have enough sense
not to settle where there is nothing to eat.

Again, even allowing that some rare trees, the fruit of which was edible,
were to be found, it does not do to lose sight of the fact that you may
be passing under that tree at the season when it is not bearing fruit, as
fruit-trees, even in tropical countries, do not always bear fruit at a
time to suit the convenience of the passing traveller.

As I have said, the country we were traversing was there hilly and rocky,
and we were cutting across the headwaters of numerous tributaries, first
of the Tapajoz River, then of the Madeira River--the tiny watercourses,
most of them only a few inches wide, descending in numerous