episode; but I did not make it without blushing--mentally.

- He shook his head, and said it was a poor weapon against some
enemies; also--truly enough--that it would procure no birds and

monkeys for the stew-pot.
Next morning my friend Kua-ko, taking his zabatana, invited me to

go out with him, and I consented with some misgivings, thinking
he had overcome his superstitious fears and, inflamed by my

account of the abundance of game in the forest, intended going
there with me. The previous day's experience had made me think

that it would be better in the future to go there alone. But I
was giving the poor youth more credit than he deserved: it was

far from his intention to face the terrible unknown again. We
went in a different direction, and tramped for hours through

woods where birds were scarce and only of the smaller kinds.
Then my guide surprised me a second time by offering to teach me

to use the zabatana. This, then, was to be my reward for giving
him the box! I readily consented, and with the long weapon,

awkward to carry, in my hand, and imitating the noiseless
movements and cautious, watchful manner of my companion, I tried

to imagine myself a simple Guayana savage, with no knowledge of
that artificial social state to which I had been born, dependent

on my skill and little roll of poison-darts for a livelihood. By
an effort of the will I emptied myself of my life experience and

knowledge--or as much of it as possible--and thought only of the
generations of my dead imaginary progenitors, who had ranged

these woods back to the dim forgotten years before Columbus; and
if the pleasure I had in the fancy was childish, it made the day

pass quickly enough. Kua-ko was constantly at my elbow to assist
and give advice; and many an arrow I blew from the long tube, and

hit no bird. Heaven knows what I hit, for the arrows flew away
on their wide and wild career to be seen no more, except a few

which my keen-eyed comrade marked to their destination and
managed to recover. The result of our day's hunting was a couple

of birds, which Kua-ko, not I, shot, and a small opossum his
sharp eyes detected high up a tree lying coiled up on an old

nest, over the side of which the animal had incautiously allowed
his snaky tail to dangle. The number of darts I wasted must have

been a rather serious loss to him, but he did not seem troubled
at it, and made no remark.

Next day, to my surprise, he volunteered to give me a second
lesson, and we went out again. On this occasion he had provided

himself with a large bundle of darts, but--wise man!--they were
not poisoned, and it therefore mattered little whether they were

wasted or not. I believe that on this day I made some little
progress; at all events, my teacher remarked that before long I

would be able to hit a bird. This made me smile and answer that
if he could place me within twenty yards of a bird not smaller

than a small man I might manage to touch it with an arrow.
This speech had a very unexpected and remarkable effect. He

stopped short in his walk, stared at me wildly, then grinned, and
finally burst into a roar of laughter, which was no bad imitation

of the howling monkey's performance, and smote his naked thighs
with tremendousenergy. At length recovering himself, he asked

whether a small woman was not the same as a small man, and being
answered in the affirmative, went off into a second extravagant

roar of laughter.
Thinking it was easy to tickle him while he continued in this

mood, I began making any number of feeble jokes--feeble, but
quite as good as the one which had provoked such outrageous

merriment--for it amused me to see him acting in this unusual
way. But they all failed of their effect--there was no hitting

the bull's-eye a second time; he would only stare vacantly at me,
then grunt like a peccary--not appreciatively--and walk on.

Still, at intervals he would go back to what I had said about
hitting a very big bird, and roar again, as if this wonderful

joke was not easily exhausted.
Again on the third day we were out together practicing at the

birds--frightening if not killing them; but before noon, finding
that it was his intention to go to a distant spot where he

expected to meet with larger game, I left him and returned to the
village. The blow-pipe practice had lost its novelty, and I did

not care to go on all day and every day with it; more than that,
I was anxious after so long an interval to pay a visit to my

wood, as I began to call it, in the hope of hearing that
mysterious melody which I had grown to love and to miss when even

a single day passed without it.
CHAPTER V

After making a hasty meal at the house, I started, full of
pleasing anticipations, for the wood; for how pleasant a place it

was to be in! What a wild beauty and fragrance and melodiousness
it possessed above all forests, because of that mystery that drew

me to it! And it was mine, truly and absolutely--as much mine as
any portion of earth's surface could belong to any man--mine with

all its products: the precious woods and fruits and fragrant gums
that would never be trafficked away; its wild animals that man

would never persecute; nor would any jealoussavagedispute my
ownership or pretend that it was part of his hunting-ground. As

I crossed the savannah I played with this fancy; but when I
reached the ridgy eminence, to look down once more on my new

domain, the fancy changed to a feeling so keen that it pierced to
my heart and was like pain in its intensity, causing tears to

rush to my eyes. And caring not in that solitude to disguise my
feelings from myself, and from the wide heaven that looked down

and saw me--for this is the sweetest thing that solitude has for
us, that we are free in it, and no convention holds us--I dropped

on my knees and kissed the stony ground, then casting up my eyes,
thanked the Author of my being for the gift of that wild forest,

those green mansions where I had found so great a happiness!
Elated with this strain of feeling, I reached the wood not long

after noon; but no melodious voice gave me familiar and expected
welcome; nor did my invisiblecompanion make itself heard at all

on that day, or, at all events, not in its usual bird-like
warbling language. But on this day I met with a curious little

adventure and heard something very extraordinary, very
mysterious, which I could not avoid connecting in my mind with

the unseen warbler that so often followed me in my rambles.
It was an exceedingly bright day, without cloud, but windy, and

finding myself in a rather open part of the wood, near its
border, where the breeze could be felt, I sat down to rest on the

lower part of a large branch, which was half broken, but still
remained attached to the trunk of the tree, while resting its

terminal twigs on the ground. Just before me, where I sat, grew
a low, wide-spreading plant, covered with broad, round, polished

leaves; and the roundness, stiffness, and perfectly horizontal
position of the upper leaves made them look like a collection of

small platforms or round table-tops placed nearly on a level.
Through the leaves, to the height of a foot or more above them, a

slender dead stem protruded, and from a twig at its summit
depended a broken spider's web. A minute dead leaf had become

attached to one of the loose threads and threw its small but
distinct shadow on the platform leaves below; and as it trembled

and swayed in the current of air, the black spot trembled with it
or flew swiftly over the bright green surfaces, and was seldom at

rest. Now, as I sat looking down on the leaves and the small
dancing shadow, scarcely thinking of what I was looking at, I

noticed a small spider, with a flat body and short legs, creep
cautiously out on to the upper surface of a leaf. Its pale red

colour barred with velvet black first drew my attention to it,
for it was beautiful to the eye; and presently I discovered that

this was no web-spinning, sedentary spider, but a wandering
hunter, that captured its prey, like a cat, by stealing on it

concealed and making a rush or spring at the last. The moving
shadow had attracted it and, as the sequel showed, was mistaken

for a fly running about over the leaves and flitting from leaf to