Quashy’s brief commentary explained it all.
“Purrit!”
It was indeed the Indian’s faithful pet-parrot, which he had taught thus to raise the war-cry of his tribe, and which, having bestowed its entire affections on its master, was in the habit of taking occasional flights after him when he went away from home.
Chapter Seventeen.
In which Ingenuity, Comicality, Ferocity, Eccentricity, Fecundity, and some other “Ities” in Man and Beast are mentioned.
Plain sailing, fair weather, perpetual calm and sunshine are not the lot of any man or woman here.
The weather, that fertile source of human intercourse, is occasionally boisterous as well as serene in the regions of Peru and Bolivia. A day or two after the events recounted in the last chapter our travellers experienced a sudden change.
We have said that they had come to a part of the river where there were occasional stretches of sand, and here they had evidence of the improvident nature of Indians, in the number of turtle-shells found lying on the sands with parts of the animals still adhering to them.