They believed
implicitly in a good and an evil spirit. The good spirit was too good
to do them any harm and consequently they did not bother with him;
but the evil spirit was more active and could be heard in the dark
nights, howling and wailing far off in the forest as he searched for
lonely wanderers, whom he was said to devour.
Thinking to amuse some of my friends, I one day kindled a flame by
means of my magnifying glass and a few dry twigs. A group of ten or
twelve Indians had gathered squatting in a circle about me, to see
the wonder that I was to exhibit, but at the sight of smoke followed
by flame they were badly scared and ran for the house, where they
called the Chief. He arrived on the scene with his usual smile.
He asked me to show him what I had done. I applied the focussed rays
of the sun to some more dry leaves and twigs and, finally, the flames
broke out again. The Chief was delighted and begged me to make him a
present of the magnifier. As I did not dare to refuse, I showed him
how to use it and then presented it with as good grace as I could.
Some time after this, I learned that two Peruvians had been caught
in a trap set for the purpose. The unfortunate men had spent a whole
night in a pit, nine feet deep, and were discovered the next forenoon
by a party of hunters, who immediately killed them with unpoisoned,
big-game arrows.
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