Is it astonishing that the llama makes his own rules of conduct and exacts entire consideration of them? Disobedience he indicates in a way not to be forgotten! And yet such is his docility that dozens are often kept within bounds by a single thread stretched around them breast high,--rugged little mountain beasts herded with worsted! Usually so gentle, if a llama is annoyed he becomes revengeful and useless. He never will hurry, for supplying his own food he must graze when opportunity offers. He will not be overloaded. One hundred pounds he will cheerfully carry, but with more than that he sits down like a camel, dreamily chewing his cud, and can be neither forced nor persuaded to rise. In speaking of the alpaca, cousin of the llama, Father Acosta said that “the only remedy is to stay and sit down by the _paco_, making much on him, until the fit be passed, and that he rise; and sometimes they are forced to stay two or three hours.” The little variegated herd, with expressions of mild surprise, step daintily along as if walking [Illustration: LLAMAS AT THE FALLS OF MOROCOCHA.] on eggs, following at even distances, each moving with authority of a whole procession. If frightened, they huddle into a compact group, craning their long necks toward the center. Then they look you wistfully in the face for minutes at a time without moving. The halter of the leader is embroidered, and small streamers flutter from it. Most of the llamas have tassels in their ears, or little pendants or bells. Thus they file across the snow-covered cordillera. At night when they sink on to the _puna_ at their journey’s end, a faint murmur like many æolian harps is wafted into the perfect stillness of the frosty night. It is the llamas’ appreciation of rest. PART III IN THE JUNGLE The land lying between Peru and Brazil is a mystery “although the bounds be known of all sides.... Some say it is a drowned land, full of lakes and watery places; others affirm there are great and flourishing kingdoms, ... where they say are wonderful things.” FATHER ACOSTA CHAPTER I A LAND OF ADVENTURE What a “hereditary spell” the jungle has had upon men! How smilingly its beauty allures--and how graciously it repels! Yet its beauty is not merely beauty. It flashes suggestions of wondrous lands beyond, bringing to the imagination a pleasure in its own vision like the joy of nature in her own loveliness. The jungle is a region which men have always peopled with strange forms pleasing to their fancies, yet a region of dread, beyond human loneliness. It has sheltered in turn the desideratum of each age, while surrounding it with fearful mysteries. But though men have looked upon the jungle with awe, magic possibilities were still within and beyond. _A chacun son infini._