OF THE AMAZON. 49 



sleeps beside his fire as comfortably as we do in our 

 beds of down. 



Other tribes twist the strings together in a com- 

 plicated manner so that the hammock is more elastic, 

 and the Brazilians have introduced a variety of improve- 

 ments by using a kind of knitting needles producing a 

 closer web, or by a large wooden frame with rollers, on 

 which they weave in a rude manner with a woof and 

 weft as in a regular loom. They also dye the string of 

 many brilliant colours which they work in symmetrical 

 patterns, making the redes or " maqueiras " as they are 

 there called, among the gayest articles of furniture to be 

 seen in a Brazilian house on the Amazon. 



From the fruits a favourite Indian beverage is pro- 

 duced. They are soaked in water till they begin to 

 ferment, and the scales and pulpy matter soften and can 

 be easily rubbed off in water. When strained through 

 a sieve it is ready for use, and has a slight acid taste 

 and a peculiar flavour of the fruit at first rather 

 disagreeable to European palates. 



In the tidal districts about Para, the massive trunks 

 of these trees are often used to form a raised pathway 

 across the expanse of soft mud generally left at low 

 water between "terra firma" and the water's edge. 

 A smooth and slippery cylinder is certainly not the best 

 thing that could be devised for this purpose, but as it is 

 the most easily procured and the least expensive it is 

 proportionately common, and on paying a visit to many 

 a Brazilian country house, should you arrive at low 

 water, you will have no other means of getting ashore. 



F 



