LIFE AT MAXAOS. 206 



oars, and seemingly haunted by waterfowl. In one we r,aw 

 immense flocks of what looked at that distance either 

 like red Ibises or red spoonbills, and also numbers of 

 gulls. Our sportsmen looked longingly at them, and are 

 impatient for the time when we shall be settled on land, 

 and they can begin to make havoc among the birds. 



September Yltli. Last evening we took in wood from 

 the shore some miles below the town of Tonantins. I sat 

 watching the Indians on the bank, of whom there were 

 some fifteen or twenty, men, women, and children ; the 

 men loading the wood, the women and children being 

 there apparently to look on. They had built a fire on 

 the bank, and hung their nets or cotton tents, under which 

 they sleep, on the trees behind. They made a wild group, 

 passing to and fro in the light of the fire, the care of which 

 seemed the special charge of a tall, gaunt, weird-looking 

 woman, who would have made a good Meg Merrilies. 

 She seemed to have but one garment, a long, brown, 

 stuff robe, girt round the waist; as she strode about the 

 fire, throwing on fresh logs and stirring the dying em- 

 bers, the flames blazed up in her face, lighting her tawny 

 skin and long, unkempt hair, flickering over the figures of 

 women and children about her, and shedding a warm glow 

 over the forest which made the setting to the picture. This 

 is the only very tall Indian woman I have seen ; usually 

 the women are rather short of stature. When the Indians 

 had made their preparations for the night, they heaped 

 damp fuel on the fire till it smouldered down and threw 

 out thick clouds of smoke, enveloping the sleeping-tents, 

 and no doubt driving off effectually the clouds of moMiui- 

 toes, from which the natives seem as great suiK-ivi^ as 

 strangers. These upper stations on the Amazons are 



