190 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [>*, 



feet long, by about forty wide and thirty high, very strongly 

 constructed of round, smooth, barked timbers, and thatched 

 with the fan-shaped leaves of the Carana palm. One end was 

 square, with a gable, the other circular ; and the eaves, hang- 

 ing over the low walls, reached nearly to the ground. In the 

 middle was a broad aisle, formed by the two rows of the 

 principal columns supporting the roof, and between these 

 and the sides were other rows of smaller and shorter timbers ; 

 the whole of them were firmly connected by longitudinal and 

 transverse beams at the top, supporting the rafters, and were 

 all bound together with much symmetry by sipds. 



Projecting inwards from the walls on each side were short 

 partitions of palm-thatch, exactly similar in arrangement to the 

 boxes in a London eating-house, or those of a theatre. Each 

 of these is the private apartment of a separate family, who thus 

 live in a sort of patriarchal community. In the side aisles are 

 the farinha ovens, tipitfs for squeezing the mandiocca, huge 

 pans and earthen vessels for making caxiri, and other large 

 articles, which appear to be in common ; while in every 

 separate apartment are the small pans, stools, baskets, redes, 

 water-pots, weapons, and ornaments of the occupants. The 

 centre aisle remains unoccupied, and forms a fine walk through 

 the house. At the circular end is a cross partition or railing 

 about five feet high, cutting off rather more than the semicircle, 

 but with a wide opening in the centre : this forms the residence 

 of the chief or head of the malocca, with his wives and 

 children ; the more distant relations residing in the other part 

 of the house. The door at the gable end is very wide and 

 lofty, that at the circular end is smaller, and these are the 

 only apertures to admit light and air. The upper part of the 

 gable is loosely covered with palm-leaves hung vertically, 

 through which the smoke of the numerous wood fires slowly 

 percolates, giving, however, in its passage a jetty lustre to the 

 whole of the upper part of the roof. 



On entering this house, I was delighted to find myself at 

 length in the presence of the true denizens of the forest. An 

 old and a young man and two women were the only occupiers, 

 the rest being out on their various pursuits. The women were 

 absolutely naked ; but on the entrance of the " brancos " they 

 slipped on a petticoat, with which in these lower parts of the 

 river they are generally provided but never use except on 



