It was a lamentable condition of
hysteria with which he decided to have nothing to do. He did not
care for women, anyhow. One could scarcely have any dealings with
them without becoming involved in some affair that unduly harrowed
one's feelings. How much better it was to know the clean spirit of
adventure and the joy of living, undisturbed by feverish emotions!
As he reclined there, busied with these thoughts, two vivid little
paroquets alighted near him, to quarrel noisily, then make up and
kiss each other like any pair of lovers. It was disgusting. A
toucan peered at him with an appearance of exaggerated curiosity,
due to its huge, grotesquely proportioned beak. Now and then came
the harsh notes of parrots as they fluttered high above the tree-
tops. Meanwhile the young man's ears became attuned to the jungle
noises, his eyes observant of the many kinds of life about him.
The wood was crowded with plant-life utterly strange to him. On
the hill above towered a giant ceiba-tree, its trunk as smooth as
if polished by hand and bare of branches except at the very top,
where, instead of tapering, it ended abruptly in a tuft of
foliage. Here and there stood tremendous cotton-trees, their limbs
so burdened with air-plants as to form a series of aerial gardens,
their twigs bearing pods filled with down.
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