170 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



with its ovil, red fruit, the Imbauba-tree, neither so lofty 

 nor so regular in form as about Rio, and the Taxi, with its 

 masses of white flowers and brown buds. For two days 

 past we have lost the palms in a great degree ; about Monte 

 Alegre they were comparatively few, and here we see 

 scarcely any. 



The shore between Santarem and Obydos, where we 

 shall arrive this evening, seems more populous than the 

 regions we have been passing through. As we coast 

 along, keeping close to the land, the scenes revive all our 

 early visions of an ancient pastoral life. Groups of Indians 

 men, women, and children greet us from the shore, 

 standing under the overarching trees, usually trained or 

 purposely chosen to form a kind of arbor over the landing- 

 place, the invariable foreground of the picture, with the 

 " montaria " moored in front. One or two hammocks are 

 often slung in the trees, and between the branches one 

 gets a glimpse of the thatched roof and walls of the little 

 straw cottage behind. Perhaps if we were to look a little 

 closer at these pictures of pastoral life, we should find the}' 

 have a coarse and prosaic side. But let them stand. Ar- 

 cadia itself would not bear a too minute scrutiny, nor 

 could it present a fairer aspect than do these Indian homes 

 on .the banks of the Amazons. The primitive forest about 

 the houses is usually cleared, and they stand in the midst 

 of little plantations of the cacao-tree, mingled with the 

 mandioca shrub, from the roots of which the Indians 

 make their flour, and occasionally also with the India- 

 rubber-tree, though, as the latter grows plentifully in the 

 forest, it is not often cultivated. The cacao and the India- 

 rubber they send to Para, in exchange for such domestic 

 goods as they require. We have passed so close to the 



