10 PALM TREES 



arranged in regular alternate rows, and bound to the 

 rafters with sipos or forest creepers ; the leaves are 

 those of the Carana palm. The door of the house is a 

 framework of thin hard strips of wood neatly thatched 

 over; it is made of the split stems of the Pashiuba 

 palm. In one corner stands a heavy harpoon for catching 

 the cow-fish ; it is formed of the black wood of the 

 Pashiuba barriguda. By its side is a blowpipe ten or 

 twelve feet long, and a little quiver full of small poi- 

 soned arrows hangs up near it ; with these the Indian 

 procures birds for food, or for their gay feathers, or 

 even brings down the wild hog or the tapir, and it is 

 from the stem and spines of two species of Palms that 

 they are made. His great bassoon-like musical instru- 

 ments are made of palm stems ; the cloth in which he 

 wraps his most valued feather ornaments is a fibrous 

 palm spathe, and the rude chest in which he keeps his 

 treasures is woven from palm leaves. His hammock, 

 his bow-string and his fishing-line are from the fibres 

 of leaves which he obtains from different palm trees, 

 according to the qualities he requires in them, — the 

 hammock from the Miriti, and the bow-string and 

 fishing-line from the Tucum. The comb which he wears 

 on his head is ingeniously constructed of the hard bark 

 of a palm, and he makes fish hooks of the spines, or uses 

 them to puncture on his skin the peculiar markings of 

 his tribe. His children are eating the agreeable red 

 and yellow fruit of the Pupunha or peach palm, and 

 from that of the Assai he has prepared a favourite drink, 

 which he offers you to taste. That carefully suspended 



