234 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
monitious of youth, and shows them to have been not mere 
guesses, but founded upon an insight into the true relations 
of things. Wearied after a while with watching the fish- 
ing in the sun, I went back into the forest, where I found 
the coffee-pot already boiling over the fire. It was pleas- 
ant to sit down on a fallen, moss-grown trunk, and break- 
fast in the shade. Presently the fishermen came back from 
the lake, and we found our way to the boats again, laden 
with an immense number of fishes. The gentlemen re- 
turned to the house in one of the smaller montarias, taking 
the specimens with them, and leaving me to return in the 
larger canoe with the Senhoras. It seemed to me strange 
on this Sunday morning, when the bells must be ringing 
and the people trooping to church under the bright October 
sky, in our far-off New England home, to be floating down 
this quiet igarape, in a boat full of half-naked Indians, their 
wild, monotonous chant sounding in our ears as they kept 
time to their oars. In these excursions one learns to un- 
derstand the fascination this life must have for a people 
among whom civilization is as yet but very incomplete ; 
it is full of physical enjoyment, without any mental ef- 
fort. Up early in the morning and off on their fishing 
or hunting excursions long before dawn, they return by 
the middle of the day, lie in their hammocks and smoke 
during the hours of greatest heat ; cook the fish they 
have brought with them, and, unless sickness comes to 
them, know neither want nor care. We reached the house 
in time for a twelve o'clock breakfast of a more solid char- 
acter than the lighter one in the forest, and by no means 
unacceptable after our long row. In the course of the day 
two " Peixe-bois " (Manatees) were brought in, also a Boto 
(porpoise), and some large specimens of Pirarucu (Sudis). 
