Jed had a weird thought later, wondering if priests were supposed to maintain the minimum daily wage. Their party had grown into an expedition of nine by the time they set off, superbly mounted on Paso Finos.

"What the heck," he answered his own question,"being just, I have to consider that the whole crew cost less than what I charge for the use of one horse on Mount Cascade. It is worth it, if only to take a busman's holiday."

Climbing back in the saddle once again, Jed experienced a feeling of excitement that only horsemen know after walking around like a mere mortal. The saddle, if it could be called that, was a woven pad stuffed with vegetation which could double for fodder if necessary. The stirrups consisted of a vine twisted into a small loop only large enough to hold the rider's big toe. Since he and Jenny were wearing boots, and were considerably longer legged than the natives, Jed made an adjustment with a few pieces of parachute cord he habitually carried in his pack.

This mixture of ages old material with a Twentieth Century development tickled Jed. He had always been a student of the subject of man on horseback. He knew that the pad saddle could be traced back to 17th century Spain, and a toe ring was first cousin to Argentinean gaucho's riding rigs.

Along these lines, he had already noted the pack saddles. The bent stick forks, bowed, and lashed to crude sidebars differed considerably from the Aphahoe method, or pad method of horsepacking used by the Spanish. It was closer in principle to the Decker saddle —just recently adopted by the U.S. Forest Service— that supposedly had been invented by a contract packer in Idaho during the 1920's.

Jed knew this claim was erroneous, for he had catalogued Crow Indian saddles of the Abasorka tribe, that were of the same design . What was interesting here, though, was that the Choco´ used a suspended leather sling from bow to bow to absorb shock. The only other place he could recall that such a device had been developed was among the ancient Magyarpusitas, or cattle herders of the Hungarian plains.

The thought that he had encountered expert horsemanship, a pure breed of Paso Fino, and a saddle that could be directly compared to something only known and used by the Crow, the Navajo, and the Hungarian nomad, excited the anthropologist in Jed.

Thinking about it, as they rode along through thick jungle growth, alive with beautiful, colorful, friendly plants, and those not so friendly, as the parasitic wild orchid, or vines consisting of nothing but thorn, Jed made up his mind to return one day, academically.