The rain made us
miserable, but we suffered more from hunger than from any other
cause, and on more than one occasion were reduced to the verge of
starvation. Twice we were driven to beg for food at Indian
villages, and as we had nothing to give in exchange for it, we
got very little. It is possible to buy hospitality from the
savage without fish-hooks, nails, and calico; but on this
occasion I found myself without that impalpable medium of
exchange which had been so great a help to me on my first journey
to Parahuari. Now I was weak and miserable and without cunning.
It is true that we could have exchanged the two dogs for cassava
bread and corn, but we should then have been worse off than ever.
And in the end the dogs saved us by an occasional capture--an
armadillo surprised in the open and seized before it could bury
itself in the soil, or an iguana, opossum, or labba, traced by
means of their keen sense of smell to its hiding-place. Then
Nuflo would rejoice and feast, rewarding them with the skin,
bones, and entrails. But at length one of the dogs fell lame,
and Nuflo, who was very hungry, made its lameness an excuse for
dispatching it, which he did apparently without compunction,
notwithstanding that the poor brute had served him well in its
way.
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