"That bird chestnut cuckoo," said Pinto. "It have the soul of a cat."
And as Will listened he could well believe it. A little farther off, another bird called constantly, "Crispen, Crispen, Crispen."
"One time," narrated the Indian, "a girl and her little brother Crispen go walking in the woods. He very little boy and he wander away and get lost, and all day and all night and all next day she go through the woods calling, 'Crispen! Crispen! Crispen!' until at last she changed into a little bird. And still she flies through the woods and calls 'Crispen!'"
At this point, Jud finally found his missing shoes and started to put one on, but stopped at a shout from the Mundurucu.
"Shake it out!" warned Pinto. "No one ever puts on shoes in this country without shaking out."
Jud did as he was told. With the first shoe he drew a blank. Out of the second one, however, rattled down on the floor a centipede fully six inches long, which Pinto skillfully crushed with the heavy water-pitcher. Jud gasped and sank back into his hammock.
"Boys," he said solemnly, "I doubt if I last out this trip!"