with tremendous energy. 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