276 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
CHAPTER IX. 
MANAOS AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESTABLISHMENT. INDIAN PORTRAITS. EXCURSION TO THB 
"GREAT CASCADE." ITS GEOLOGICAL, FORMATION. BATHING POOL. 
PARASITIC PLANTS. RETURN BY THE IGARAPE. PUBLIC BALL. SEVERITY 
IN RECRUITING, AND ITS EFFECTS. COLLECTING PARTIES. SCENES OF IN- 
DIAN LIFE. FETE CHAMPETRE AT THE " CASA DOS EDUCANDOS." PRISON 
AT MANAOS. PRISON DISCIPLINE ON THE AMAZONS. EXTRACTS FROM 
PRESIDENTIAL REPORTS ON THIS SUBJECT. PRISON AT TEFFE. GENERAL 
CHARACTER OF BRAZILIAN INSTITUTIONS. EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY. ILLU- 
MINATIONS AND PUBLIC FESTIVITIES. RETURN OF COLLECTING PARTIES. 
REMARKS ON THE RACES. LEAVE MANAOS FOR MAUHES. 
Saturday, November 4th. Manaos. This week has been 
rather uneventful. Mr. Agassiz is prevented from undertak- 
ing new expeditions by the want of alcohol. The next steam- 
er will bring a fresh supply from Para ; and meanwhile, 
being interrupted in his collections, he is making a study 
of the various intermixture of races, Indians and Negroes, 
with their crossings, of which a great number are found 
here. Our picturesque barrack of a room, which we 
have left for more comfortable quarters in Mr. Honorio's 
house, serves as a photographic saloon, and here Mr. Agassiz 
is at work half the day with his young friend Mr. Hunne- 
well, who spent almost the whole time of our stay in Rio 
in learning photography, and has become quite expert in 
taking likenesses. The grand difficulty is found in the 
prejudices of the people themselves. There is a prevalent 
superstition among the Indians and Negroes that a portrait 
absorbs into itself something of the vitality of the sitter, 
and that any one is liable to die shortly after his picture 
is taken. This notion is so deeply rooted that it has been 
