306 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



well as in Bolivia, and will, no doubt, have a wider dis- 

 tribution when its value is more generally known. The 

 Indians display no little fancy in the manufacture of this 

 article, moulding the paste into the shape of mounted 

 soldiers, horses, birds, serpents, &c. 



This morning I was attracted by voices in the street, 

 and going to the window I saw the door of the house 

 where the President is lodged besieged by a crowd of 

 Bolivian Indians. They had brought some of their robes 

 to sell, and it was not long before several of our party, 

 among whom were ready purchasers, made their appear- 

 ance in Bolivian costume. This dress is invariable ; al- 

 ways the long robe, composed of two pieces, one hang- 

 ing before, the other behind, belted around the waist and 

 fastened on the shoulders, with an opening for the head to 

 pass through. Such a robe, with a broad-brimmed, coarse 

 straw hat, constitutes the whole dress of these people. 

 Their ordinary working garb is made of bark ; their better 

 robe, for more festive occasions, consists of a twilled cot- 

 ton of their own manufacture, exceedingly soft and fine, 

 but very close and strong. These dresses may be more 

 or less ornamented, but are always of the same shape. 

 The Bolivian Indians seem to be more industrious than 

 those of the Amazons, or else they are under more rigor- 

 ous discipline. 



December ~L4th. At the settlement of Mucaja-Tuba. 

 Mucaja signifies a particular kind of palm, very abun- 

 dant here ; Tuba means a place. Thus we are among the 

 woods of Acrocomia. Yesterday we were to have left 

 Mauhes with the dawn on an excursion to this place, but 

 at the appointed hour a flood of rain, such as is seen only 

 in these latitudes, was pouring down in torrents, accom- 



