Matto Grosso

While job hunting in Rio de Janiero, Wacław Korabiewicz met Mr Stanislaus, an expert of the wilderness, a natural scientist, the leader of a great scientific expedition about to set off for the Matto Grosso.

“You have money, sir, and wish to pay for the pleasure, or is it the other way around: you have no money and want to make some?”Of course I had no money. Not only that, but I had a wife and child, with whom I should have to leave any cash I might have to spare. I painted my situation in a few works: refugee, doctor without employment, and ... altogether a sailor without a ship.[...]I could go with him and once as a professional taxidermist, or stuffer of birds.“But,” I protested, “I have no idea how to stuff birds.”“Doesn't matter. There's nothing to it. As a doctor, you've no doubt carved up a body or two, so birds and beasts ought to come easy to you. Anyway, I'll teach you; I;m a master of the craft. And besides you can take a few lessons at the National Museum, so as to be sure your methods are modern; you understand: classico.

To roll a Brazilian papieros is an art. The first act is to cut a little piece of tobacco off the sausage-shaped twist of it hanging from your belt. This piece is called guano, a name that exactly corresponds to its appearance. You then cut the guano into the thinnest of thin rounds with a sharp knife, place the rounds on the palm of one hand and with the other rub them until all the shreds have separated. That accomplished, you put your hand into a pocket and produce a maize leaf. Then begins the rolling proper, which may last anything up to five minutes and which constitutes the greatest delight of a Mateiro.

We took to sleeping in our hammocks. The naval or marine hammock is not unlike a bed. You can stretch it out and it is possible more or less to arrange bed clothes on it and for the body to lie in a more or less normal position. But not so the Brazilian hammock. That just hangs like a bag, without slats and loose. You sleep lying across it, so that your spine twists in spirals, hands and feet in opposite directions, and your left ear slides down on to your right shoulder. In that lovely position you are supposed to rest, a euphemism for waiting for the merciful dawn.Apart from its excellence in exercising arthritically stiffened joints, the Brazilian hammock has the great virtue that the least puff of wind, especially the cold breath of dawn, is felt most delightfully on your bared back. Sleeping in a bed is monotonous and boringly uneventful, but the hammock is different. At the least attempt to change position the hammock will always try to rid itself of its burden. This both provides amusement and trains you in maintaining equilibrium. There's nothing like a hammock.