Few as were these forms of vegetable life, animals and birds were fewer still. An occasional deer contemplated us at a distance, and a little animal, similar to the prairie-dog of the West, tumbled hurriedly into his hole as we approached his solitary covert. In places, the disintegrated quartz rock appeared above the surface for wide distances, reflecting back the rays of the sun, which seemed to pour down with unwonted and blinding brilliancy, from a cloudless sky. I could scarcely comprehend the sudden change from the region of the lagoons, where the overladen earth sweltered beneath forests teeming with life, and the air was oppressed with the cloying odors of myriads of flowers, and this stern region, ribbed with rock, where Nature herself seemed paralyzed, and silence held an eternal reign.
It was a singular spectacle, that little troop of ours, as it hurried rapidly across these mountain wastes, or huddled closely together, when night came on, around a scanty fire, made of wood which the Poyer boy, with wise prevision, had deposited there, on his return to the Tirolas. As we descended from terrace to terrace, we came again into the region of pines and oaks, which, in their turn, gave place to forests of other varieties of trees, interrupted by strips of open or savannah lands. We early struck a little stream, which, I observed, we followed constantly. It proved to be the branch of the great river Patuca, upon which the Poyer village is situated, and bore the musical name of Guallambre. At night, when we encamped, the Poyer boy took a calabash, and, motioning to me to follow, led the way down the stream to a little sand-bar. Scooping up some of the sand in his bowl, and then filling it with water, he whirled it rapidly, so that a feathery stream of mingled sand and water flew constantly over its edge. He continued this operation until the sand was nearly exhausted, and then filled the bowl again. After repeating this process several times, he grew more careful, balancing the bowl skillfully, and stopping occasionally to pick out the pebbles, which, owing to their weight, had not been carried over by the water.
I understood at once that this was the primitive mode of washing gold, and was, therefore, not greatly surprised when, after the process was complete, the Poyer showed me a little deposit of gold, in grains, at the bottom of the calabash, equal to about a fourth of an ounce in weight. He then told me that all the streams, flowing down the mountains toward the north, carried gold in their sands, and that the latter were frequently washed by his people, to obtain the means of purchasing such articles of civilized manufacture as they might need from the Spaniards of Olancho, and the traders who visited the coast.[4]
On the eighth day from our encampment on the Tirolas, after a laborious march among heavily-wooded hills, following, for most of the distance, the bed of the Guallambre, now swollen to a considerable stream, we reached the Poyer village. I say village, for such it was, in fact, although composed of but a single house! This was a substantial structure, forty paces in length, and ten broad, supported on stout posts, and heavily thatched with palm-leaves. The front and ends were open, but along the back extended a series of little apartments, separated from each other by partitions of the outer shells of the cabbage-palm, which, when split and pressed flat, make good substitutes for boards. These were the dormitories, or private apartments of the mated or married occupants, and of the girls. The places for the boys were on elevated platforms, beneath the roof. A row of stones, set firmly in the ground, defined the outline of the building. Within them the earth was elevated a foot or more, to preserve it dry and unaffected by the rains. The position was admirably chosen, on a kind of step or shelf of a considerable hill, which rose behind, clothed with dense verdure, while in front it subsided rapidly to the stream, here tumbling noisily among the rocks, and yonder circling, bubble-sprinkled, in dark pools, beneath the trees. The ground around was beaten smooth and hard, and numbers of tamed curassows stalked to and fro, gravely elevating and depressing their crests; while within the building, and on its roof, numerous parrots and macaws waddled after each other, or exercised their voices in loud and discordant cries. There were also a few pigs and ducks, all appearing to be as much at home beneath the roof, as were the naked Indian babies, with whom they mingled on terms of perfect equality.
POYER VILLAGE ON THE GUALLAMBRE.
My boy had gone ahead, and had returned to meet us in company with two old men, who were the lawgivers of the establishment, and who reverentially touched my knee with their foreheads, by way of salutation. They said but a single word, which I suppose was one of welcome, and then led the way silently to the house. At one end a space had been recently fenced off, containing two new crickeries, within which my various articles were deposited, and which were at once indicated to me as my special apartment.
All the proceedings had been conducted so rapidly, that I was fairly installed in my novel quarters before I was aware of it. Our arrival had evidently been anticipated, for almost immediately the women brought us hot rolls of a species of bread made of ground cassava, baked in the ashes, with the addition of some stewed flesh of the waree, so tender and savory that it would have commended itself to a far more fastidious appetite than mine. I made a prodigious meal, to the palpable satisfaction of my faithful Poyer, who kept every calabash heaped up with food.