A great many kinds of trees grow in these forests.  Some of the trees are very high.  Often the trees are covered with vines on which beautiful flowers grow.

Wax-palm trees, breadfruit trees, and rubber trees are found in these forests.  Wax is taken from the leaves of the wax palm.

We make rubber from the rubber tree.  A cut is made in the side of the tree with a knife.  From this cut a white juice flows.  This juice is like milk.  It is caught in a cup.  After a while the juice gets hard.  Then it is rubber.

A great many strange animals and birds are found in these forests.  There is the sloth, which lives in the trees.  It has hooked claws for holding on to the branches.  It hangs on to a branch with its back downward.  When it goes to sleep, it rolls itself up like a ball.  It moves very slowly, and that is why it is called the sloth.

[Illustration:  A Sloth.]

These forests are full of monkeys and parrots.  Perhaps you have seen a parrot.  I dare say you have not seen more than two or three parrots at one time.  But in these forests there are flocks of parrots.  They fly from tree to tree, and are very wild.

[Illustration:  A Parrot.]

There are many kinds of them.  Some are red, some are green, some are blue, and some are all these colors.

Monkeys chatter and parrots screech.  What a noise they must sometimes make!

But besides the parrots and the monkeys, there are humming birds and butterflies.  You know that the humming bird is a very small bird, but humming birds are found in these forests no larger than a bee.  The butterflies are the most beautiful in the world.

The people who live in these forests are called Indians.  They do not often let white men come among them.  Their skin is copper color, like the Indians of our country.  Their hair is black and straight.  They are not as tall as our Indians, but their bodies are finely formed.  They have large, full chests.  Their hands and feet are small and nicely shaped.

They keep themselves very clean.  The men and women, the boys and girls, are all fond of bathing.  The first thing they do in the morning is to take a bath in the nearest river.

Strange to say, some of them paint their faces and bodies.  They take the juice of a tree which will stain a blue black.  They pour this juice on their heads, and let it run in streams down their backs.  They also put red and yellow in large round spots on their cheeks and foreheads.

The men braid their hair, and wear it long, down their backs.  They part their hair and wear combs.  But the women do not part their hair and do not wear combs.  They pull the hair out of their eyebrows.  They make holes in their ears.  In these holes they wear, instead of rings, a little piece of grass with feathers fastened to it.

[Illustration:  A Painted Amazon Indian.]