Head Hunters of the Amazon

Head Hunters of the Amazon by F. W. Up de Graff
1923
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TO MY SONS
BOB, BILL AND FUZZ
* * *
FOREWORD
IT is not given to many of us to wander through the waste places of the
earth, and too often the explorer leaves no written record of his
experiences. Mr. Up de Graff led an adventurous life in the region
drained by the extreme head waters of the Amazon, and he was a keen
observer of all that passed on around him. As he says, he is not a
trained naturalist and the deductions he draws from some of his
observations may be questioned by men whose life work is natural
history, but any such criticisms do not detract from the value of the
work. Anyone who has tried it out knows that three equally reliable
men observing together a scene or incident, combining variety of action
with rapidity of duration may make greatly varying independent reports
of what took place.
To him who knows life in the Amazon jungles Mr. Up de Graff's
narrative will bring back many a vivid scene. The layman may feel that
he overemphasizes the hardships, but those who have been off the
beaten path in the tropics will know that such is not the case. The only
one of Mr. Up de Graff's companions whom I have met talked of this
very matter of temperament. He said that when he looked back upon his
life on the upper Amazon he remembered only the excitement, the
interest and the glamour; but that when he came to really think it over

of course he could recall very clearly the reverse of the medal. I must
confess to somewhat the same tendency.
Mr. Up de Graff emphasizes the discomforts of the ant plague; and it
was that which we found most disagreeable on the River of Doubt. One
is apt to think of the Amazon basin in terms of snakes and mosquitoes,
and I was interested in seeing that Mr. Up de Graff made the same
observation that we did, and remarks that very few snakes are really to
be encountered in the unsettled and unexplored territories. They do far
more damage in the settled districts. The loss of life from snake bite is
large in Brazil, for the field laborers go barefoot, and are therefore very
vulnerable. Dr. Vital Brazil has done much to combat this mortality in
developing serums on his snake farm in Sa› Paulo.
One point on which my own experience are at variance from those of
Mr. Up de Graff was in the maximum length reached in an anaconda. I
have often heard tell of snakes forty or fifty feet long but I have never
encountered one, nor seen the skin of one. Many of our companions in
Brazil told of meeting with snakes of great size, and when my Father
offered five thousand dollars reward for the skin and vertebra (or either
alone) of a snake of more than thirty feet, our comrades considered the
money as good as in their pockets, for Father set no time limit on the
offer and only required that the specimen be turned over to the nearest
American Consul, who would then forward it to him. That snake is still
at large! There may be snakes of more than thirty feet, no one can
definitely deny their existence, but they must be exceedingly rare.
I have said it is easy for entirely trustworthy observers to make
mistakes. How easy it is was once demonstrated to Father and myself
in East Africa. There was a persistent legend of the existence of a giant
water serpent in Lake Naivasha, and one day when we were out after
hippopotamus I pointed out to Father something that certainly had
every appearance of being a great snake swimming through the water.
Had we not had field glasses we would probably in all sincerity have
believed that we had seen the legendary serpent, but when we turned
our powerful glasses upon the snake it proved to be a school of otters
slipping along in single file. Since then I have been slow to discredit

the sincerity of those recounting the most unusual sights.
Mr. Up de Graff's book should commend itself to a great variety of
readers. Those in search of adventure can read it as they would a novel;
those in search of a vivid picture of a great unknown stretch of country
can learn a vast amount in a most attractive form. It is useless to
attempt to record the numberless incidents that will stand out with
photographic sharpness to those who know the jungle. How excellent is
the description of the feeling of oppression brought on by being
continually encompassed by the tall trees,