366 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



ing in little oven-shaped huts made by laying narrow palm-leaf mats 

 over frameworks of saplings bent and stuck into the sand. When they 

 move the mats are carried in their canoes, so that they always have 

 their houses with them. In the rainy season, when the sand bars are 

 covered with water, they retire to the lakes, where they live on rafts 

 of dead logs tied together and floored with strips of palm wood. 



Their clothing consists of the little apron (tanga) common to other 

 Purus tribes. They paint their bodies and limbs in horizontal red 

 stripes. In common with the neighboring tribes they cultivate a little 

 tobacco, and make snuff, which they inhale through hollow bones placed 

 in the nostrils. (Plate 8.) They are a humble, cowardly race, and live 

 in deadly fear of their neighbors, the Hypurinas. 



Two days more of slow steaming brought us to Hyutanihan, just 

 below the rapids, and to the end of my journey. This place is on the 

 northwest or right bank of the river in ascending, and at a point where 

 the stream strikes the high land. Part of the village stands on the low 

 ground near the river, and along the water's edge in front is a great 

 pile of wood cut for the passing steamers. A steep climb of perhaps 

 150 feet leads to the plateau above, where stand a dozen rude palm- 

 thatched cabins of the rubber gatherers, in a clearing of several acres, 

 which is no longer cultivated and has grown to grass and bushes, in 

 which a few immense trees of the Brazil nut are still standing; behind 

 this clearing is the forest. The people, patron and all, were from 

 Ceara, and now, as there was too much rain for rubber working, were 

 busily engaged, some making canoes, others handsawing planks under 

 a shed near the beach, and still others cutting wood for the steamers. 

 Just as I got on shore a canoe drew up to the beach loaded with the 

 meat of a tapir, which was so large that it had been cut in pieces to 

 bring it out of the woods. 



1 had expected to find villages of the savages within a few hours' 

 distance of this place but discovered that hours would turn into days 

 before I could reach them. There were said to be permanent villages 

 of both the Jamamadi and Hypurinas on the headwaters of the Mar- 

 morea Miri, a river entering the Purus 60 miles below, but approach- 

 ing the main stream at this point within 25 miles. A broad trail had 

 been cut across to the Marmorea from the town, in the search for 

 rubber and nuts. 



The agent in charge at Hyutanihan found me a guide, Leocardo, an 

 active young Indian from Ceara, who had been here for several } T ears 

 and had learned something of the country and savages in his hunting 

 expeditions. 



Early the next morning we climbed the bluff and began a hurried 

 tramp through the great forest, Leocardo carrying our baggage in a 

 rubber sack to keep it from the rain. The trail led to the west, over 

 high land, which was nearly level, but every mile or two the path 



