THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION a9 
stones with which to fill up the roadway when 
the broad wheels mired deep in the loose sand, 
to repairing the engines on the rare occasions 
when such a procedure was necessary. 
We reached the Rio Sacre, beyond which 
point the trucks could not proceed, on the 
evening of the 28th. The river is here broken 
by a fall one hundred and fifty feet high. As 
elsewhere in South America, we 
were constantly reminded of 
the appalling lack of animal 
life. During the entire three 
days required to reach the Rio 
Sacre we saw only a few rheas, 
a seriema ! or two, and a num- 
ber of deer. 
On the morning of the 29th, 
we crossed the Sacre on a pon- 
toon ferry, and using a number 
of animals which had been held 
in readiness there, rode the two 
leagues to Utiarity, a village of 
the Parecis Indians; the Rio 
Papagaio, a clear, swift stream 
flows past the settlement, and 
half a mile away dashes over 
the brink of a precipice two 
hundred and fifty feet high. 
The Parecis are a small tribe 
of semi-civilized Indians who 
live in substantial huts and cul- 
tivate large fields of mandioca, 
corn and sweet potatoes. Some 
of them wore clothes while 
many wore only a breech-cloth 
of their own weaving. They 
also make hammocks and vari- 
ous articles for ornamental pur- 
poses. The youths of the tribe 
engaged in a curious game of 
head-ball, using for the purpose 
a hollow rubber sphere a foot 
in diameter, which they them- 
selves manufacture. They 
chose sides and batted the ball 
back and forth across a line, 
with their heads. The hands 
were not used, and they dis- 
played remarkable dexterity 
and tireless energy at this form 
of amusement. One evening 
just before sundown, practi- 
cally all of the men joined in 
1Seriema: a large, long-legged 
crested bird, probably related to 
the cranes. 
a sacred dance. For this occasion they were 
clothed in gaudy red head-bands from which 
protruded the brilliant feathers of the great 
blue and yellow macaw; bead neck-chains 
and belts, and anklets made of bunches of 
curious dry seeds which kept up a continuous 
rattling sound as the dancers stamped in 
rhythm with the low, wailing music of reed 
be Pe Ms 
Type of Indian assistants or camaradas, who were employed 
by the expedition to take charge of the horses, mules and oxen 
and the impedimenta 
