OF THE AMAZON, 357 



of the india-rubber tree to their legs when they dance. Each 

 village has a Tushaua : the succession is hereditary, but the 

 chief has very little power. They have pages, whom they 

 believe to have much skill, and are afraid of, and pay well. 

 They were formerly very warlike, and made many attacks 

 upon the Europeans, but are now much more peaceful ; and 

 are the most skilful of all Indians in shooting turtles and fish, 

 and in catching the cow-fish. They still use their own language 

 among themselves, though they also understand the Lingoa 

 Geral. The white traders obtain from them salsaparilha, oil 

 from turtles' eggs and the cow-fish, Brazil-nuts, and estopa, 

 which is the bark of the young Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia 

 excelsa)) used extensively for caulking canoes ; and pay them 

 in cotton goods, harpoon and arrow-heads, hooks, beads, 

 knives, cutlasses,' etc. 



The next tribes, the Purupurus, are in many respects very 

 peculiar, and differ remarkably in their habits from any other 

 nation we have yet described. They call themselves Pamouirfs, 

 but are always called by the Brazilians Purupurus, a name 

 also applied to a peculiar disease, with which they are almost 

 all afflicted : this consists in the body being spotted and 

 blotched with white, brown, or nearly black patches, of irregular 

 size and shape, and having a very disagreeable appearance : 

 when young, their skins are clear, but as they grow up, they 

 invariably become more or less spotted. Other Indians are 

 sometimes seen afflicted in this manner, and they are then 

 said to have the Purupuru ; though it does not appear whether 

 the disease is called after the tribe of Indians who are most 

 subject to it, or the Indians after the disease. Some say that 

 the word is Portuguese, but this seems to be a mistake. 



The Purupurus, men and women, go perfectly naked ; and 

 their houses are of the rudest construction, being semi-cylindri- 

 cal, like those of our gipsies, and so small, as to be set up on 

 the sandy beaches and carried away in their canoes whenever 

 they wish to move. These canoes are of the rudest construc- 

 tion, having a flat bottom and upright sides, a mere square 

 box, and quite unlike those of all other Indians. But what 

 distinguishes them yet more from their neighbours is, that they 

 use neither the gravatana, nor bow and arrows, but have an 

 instrument called a "palheta," which is a piece of wood with 

 a projection at the end, to secure the base of the arrow, the 



