I came at last to the dreary plains of South America, called _Steppes_, and here my troubles were unusually severe. All kinds of stinging insects, serpents, and loathesome reptiles annoyed me; besides I could hardly get food and drink. Sometimes, though rarely, I was so fortunate as to find a plant resembling the aloe, containing a quantity of pure water in its stem; but when I could not get this, I was obliged to drink the horrible water of the rivers, swarming with animalculæ (little creatures almost too small to be seen by the naked eye) to such a degree that I seemed to swallow about as much solid matter as liquid. As to food, I was contented, often, to swallow little balls of earth, as the natives do; for though it would be disgusting now, it served then, to keep the breath of life in me. It is a very fat, buttery kind of earth, and is prepared for food by baking it slightly in the fire. You are aware, I suppose, that the natives of Japan, Siberia, Africa, and other parts of the world, also sometimes eat clay. After travelling a long time, I came unexpectedly upon a wandering tribe of Indians, consisting of only three or four families; and, entering one of their wretched huts, built of clay and leaves, I asked them for food. At first they did not understand me, but with the help of signs, I soon made them comprehend that I was hungry; upon which one of them took down a bag containing a kind of greasy, spotted, whitish paste, gave me some of it, pointed to the fire, and went and lay down in his hammock, which with fourteen others was slung from some beams above. I was so tired and wet, for it was now the rainy season, and so glad to find something to eat better than clay, that I was going to cram it down, when I saw unexpectedly that the black spots on it were large ants. I threw it down instantly; but soon recollecting that a _paste_ mixed with ants, is represented by Humboldt as a very common food among some of these tribes of Indians, and feeling impelled by hunger to eat something, I at last eat a small quantity of it. These were the laziest sort of people I ever met with. They seemed to have no wants, beyond mere eating and drinking;[2] they have no clothes to mend, or domestic cares to attend to; no fishing, no hunting to prepare for. I quitted them as soon as I could, I assure you, for they were almost too lazy to furnish me with food; besides, I was not without fears, from the accounts given by other travellers, that they would master energy enough to kill me for food, as a treat! Before I left them, however, I was greatly rejoiced, one day, to hear the word “Orinoco;” for, on inquiry, I found by signs that this long wished for river was only a little way to the south. [Illustration: Eel] FOOTNOTES: [2] I know we have _some_ just such people as this in every country, at least in every one that I have seen; but here they were _all_ stupid. There were no active and industrious persons among them.