Part 34 (2/2)
”But why should the feelers be able to grasp the fly the moment it touches the leaf?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 16. Venus' Fly-Trap._]
”Do you recall about what the Professor told you of the peculiar power of plants to absorb food of particular kinds by a faculty called _irritability_?”
”Yes; I remember.”
”By means of that, plants are enabled to select just the kinds of substances that they want, and can digest. If you will carefully notice the leaf, after it has seized a fly it will be observed that the leaf exudes a watery substance, and that has the property of digesting the fly, or of converting the liquid part of the insect into a form of food which is taken through the leaf, and from the leaf it goes into the plant itself.”
”I thought plants got their food from the roots only?”
”Leaves are just the same as roots. They are terminals, and moisture as well as foods, such, for instance, as nitrogen, is absorbed and fed to the plant through the leaves.”
As they progressed they could see evidences of human occupation, and in many places the remains of fire. It was while making a detour from the regular route taken by John that they saw the first startling thing.
It was found at a place where a rude hut was discovered in a dilapidated condition. Directly behind the hut was a raised sort of dais, supported on two posts, and this was filled with human skulls, all in an advanced stage of decay.
It was noticed only by accident, as the area around the hut was thickly grown up by the vegetation. The boys were naturally startled at the sight.
”What does that mean?” asked Harry.
John replied: ”This is evidence that the people here are head hunters.”
”What do you mean by _head hunters_?”
”Certain savages have the belief that their importance depends on the number of heads they can capture.”
”Where do they get them?”
”It is necessary for them to kill their enemies, and impale the heads, or nail them up to their huts.”
”Is it a religious ceremony?”
”In some cases that is so. In some tribes the object is merely to show bravery and manliness. The more heads a man possesses the braver he is.”
The vicinity of the hut was carefully examined, and Uraso brought to John a very curiously arranged sh.e.l.l, with a handle to it. It was, in fact, a rattle. John took the article, and after examining it for some time, remarked:
”These people will be difficult to deal with; very difficult.”
”Why do you form that conclusion from the examination of the rattle?”
”This is a vele.”
”A _vele_; and what in the world is that?”
”A vele is a sort of hoodoo; it is something that many natives believe in with such tenacity that if any one having this rattle points to him and declares him veleed, and announces that the veleed one will die the next day, he will lay down and actually expire as predicted.”
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