230 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
provide against the rising of the river in the rainy season. 
In front of the house, just on the edge of the bank, were 
several large, open, thatched sheds, used as kitchen and 
living-rooms for the negroes and Indians employed in the 
preparation of the fish. In one of these rooms were several 
Indian women who looked very ill. We were told they had 
been there for two months, and they were worn to skin and 
bone with intermittent fever. Major Continho said they 
were, no doubt, suffering in part from the habit so preva- 
lent among these people of eating clay and dirt, for which 
they have a morbid love. They were wild-looking crea- 
tures, lying in their hammocks or squatting on the ground, 
often without any clothes, and moaning as if in pain. They 
were from the forest, and spoke no Portuguese. 
We were received most cordially by the ladies of the 
family, who had gone up to the lodge the day before, and 
were offered the refreshment of a hammock, the first act 
of hospitality in this country, when one arrives from any 
distance. After this followed an excellent breakfast of the 
fresh fish we had brought with us, cooked in a variety of 
ways, broiled, fried, and boiled. The repast was none the 
less appetizing that it was served in picnic fashion, the cloth 
being laid on the floor, upon one of the large palm-mats, 
much in use here to spread over the uncarpeted brick floors 
or under the hammocks. For several hours after breakfast 
the heat was intense, and we could do little but rest in the 
shade, though Mr. Agassiz, who works at all hours if speci- 
mens are on hand, was busy in making skeletons of some 
fish too large to be preserved in alcohol. Towards evening 
it grew cooler, and we walked in the banana plantation near 
the house, and sat under an immense gourd-tree on the 
bank, which made a deep shade ; for it was clothed not only 
