KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 209 
every evening, but they were so wild that it was impossible to get a 
sight of them. Our rice being finished, and our boxes crammed full of 
specimens, we returned, our men taking us by what they termed a better 
road, winding about through Malay villages, and making our second 
day’s walk upwards of thirty miles. I only stayed at Ayer Panas a 
sufficient time to pack up all my collections, and then returned to 
Malacca on my way to Singapore. We were congratulated by all our 
friends on having lived a week at the foot of Mount Ophir without 
getting fever.—A. R. W. 
Botanical Objects communicated to the Kew Museum, from the AMAZON 
or its Tributaries, in 1853; by RICHARD SPRUCE, Esa. 
(Continued from vol. v. p. 247.) > x 
122-143 are instruments used or ornaments worn by the Uaupé 
Indians, and principally by their chiefs, or Zucháuas, during their 
festivals (called Dabocurís). There are duplicates of nearly all. 
The Rio Uaupés joins the Rio Negro a little north of São Gabriel, 
and its course is nearly coincident with the actual Equator. 
122. Murucú, or staff, used by the Tuchánas (chiefs) of the Uaupé e 
Indians. The wood is of the Miira-piranga (i. e. red wood),—1915 to * 
Bentham,—a handsome large-flowered Myrtaceous tree, growing on the — 
inundated shores of the Rio Negro. Near the base is a hole, contain- 
ing pebbles, which rattle with every motion of the Murucá; they have 
been inserted by heating the wood, and. distending the orifice so as to 
admit their entrance. Of the ornaments on the upper part, the lowest E. 
is of narrow strips of the skin (with the hair) of a small black monkey _ 
called Uaiapissá, frequent near São Gabriel, and excellent eating. Then 
follow a few feathers of Toucan, and white down from the breast of 
the Mutún (Curassow). The bright blue feathers are of some small bird ; 
they are tightly wrapped with Curauá string. The two terminal pro- 
cesses (stuck into clefts and wrapped with curauá, stained with caraju- 
rú) are generally two pieces of bone, and are sometimes smeared with 
Uirarí, so as to cause the death of any person they pierce; but as the 
instrument is not used in war, I cannot say why it possesses this ume 3 
apparatus. 
123. Acanga-lara (i. e. head-band or tiara). (This kind i is worn : 
VOL. VII. 2E 
