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.