Cuap. IV. CANOE-SONGS. 75 
old sail outside the roof of the cabin. The crew, five in number, were 
Indians and half-breeds, all of whom treated their two superiors with 
the most amusing familiarity, yet I never sailed in a better managed 
vessel than the St. John. 
In crossing to Cameta we had to await the flood-tide in a channel 
called Entre-as-Ilhas, which lies between two islands in mid-river, and 
John Mendez, being in good tune, gave us an extempore song consisting 
of a great number of verses. ‘The crew lay about the deck listening, 
and all joined in the chorus. Some stanzas related to me, telling how 
I had come all the way from ‘ Ingalaterra” to skin monkeys and birds 
and catch insects; the last-mentioned employment of course giving 
ample scope for fun. He passed from this to the subject of political 
parties in Cameta; and then, as all the hearers were Cametaenses and 
understood the hits, there were roars of laughter, some of them rolling 
over and over on the deck, so much were they tickled. Party spirit 
runs high at Cametda, not merely in connection with local politics, but 
in relation to affairs of general concern, such as the election of members _ 
to the Imperial Parliament, and so forth. This political strife is partly 
attributable to the circumstance that a native of Cameta, Dr. Angelo 
Custodio Correia, had been in almost every election one of the candi- 
dates for the representation of the province. I fancied these shrewd 
but unsophisticated canoe-men saw through the absurdities attending 
these local contests, and hence their inclination to satirise them ; they 
were, however, evidently partisans of Dr. Angelo. The brother of 
Dr. Angelo, JoaG Augusto Correia, a distinguished merchant, was an 
active canvasser. The party of the Correias was the Liberal, or, as it 
is called throughout Brazil, the Santa Luzia faction ; the opposite side, 
at the head of which was one Pedro Moraes, was the Conservative or 
Saquarema party. I preserved one of the stanzas of the song, which 
however, does not contain much point ; it ran thus: 
Ora pana, tana pana, pana tana, 
Joao Augusto hé bonito e homem pimpad 
Mas Pedro hé feio e hum grande ladrao, 
(Chorus) Ora pana, Xc. 
{John Augustus is handsome and as a man ought to be, 
But Peter is ugly and a great thief. 
(Chorus) Ora pana, &c. ] 
The canoe-men of the Amazons have many songs and choruses, with 
which they are in the habit of relieving the monotony of their slow 
voyages, and which are known all over the interior. The choruses 
consist of a simple strain, repeated almost to weariness, and sung 
generally in unison, but sometimes with an attempt at harmony. There 
is a wildness and sadness about the tunes which harmonise well with, 
and in fact are born of, the circumstances of the canoe-man’s life: the 
echoing channels, the endless gloomy forest, the solemn nights, and the 
desolate scenes of broad and stormy waters and falling banks. Whether 
they were invented by the Indians or introduced by the Portuguese it is 
hard to decide, as many of the customs of the lower classes of Portu- 
guese are so similar to those of the Indians, that they have become 
