80 THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA. Cuap. IV. 
namely, one each in March, June, and September ; but the June crop 
often fails, and those of the other months are very precarious. In the 
intervals between harvest-times the plantations require weeding; the 
principal difficulty is to keep the trees free from woody creepers and 
epiphytes, but especially from parasitic plants of the Loranthacez group, 
the same family to which our mistletoe belongs, and which are called 
“pes de passarinho,” or “little bird’s feet,” from their pretty orange and 
red flowers resembling in shape and arrangement the three toes of birds. 
When the fruit is ready for gathering, neighbours help each other, and 
so each family is able to manage its own little plantation without 
requiring slaves. It appeared to me that cacao-growing would be an 
employment well suited to the habits and constitutions of European 
immigrants. All the work is done under shade ; but it would yield a 
poor livelihood unless a better style of cultivation and preparation were 
introduced than that now prevailing here. The fruit is of oblong shape, 
and six to eight inches in length ; the seeds are enveloped in a mass of 
white pulp, which makes a delicious lemonade when mixed with water, 
and when boiled down produces an excellent jelly. 
I found many interesting insects in the cacaoal ; the most handsome 
was the Salamis jucunda,a magnificent butterfly with sickle-shaped wings, 
which flies with great rapidity, but is readily taken when quietly feeding 
on decaying cacao fruits. ‘he island was three or four miles long and 
about a mile broad,and was situated in the central part of the river. 
The view from Dona Paulina’s house was limited by the western row of 
islets, this middle channel being about a mile broad ; not a glimpse was 
obtainable of the main land on either side, and each island was a mass 
of greenery towering to a great height, and seeming to repose on the 
surface of the water. ‘The house was in a very dilapidated condition ; 
but Dona Paulina, who was a simple, good-natured little woman, with 
her slaves, tried to make us as comfortable as the circumstances per- 
mitted. At night it rained heavily, and the water poured through the 
broken tiles on to my hammock, so I was obliged to get up and shift 
my quarters; but this is a common incident in Brazilian houses. 
The next day we crossed the river to the main land, to the house of 
Dona Paulina’s father, where we slept, and on the following morning 
started to walk to Cameta through the forest, a distance of nine miles. 
‘The road was sometimes tolerably good, at others it was a mere track, 
and twice we had to wade through swamps which crossed the path. 
We started at six a.m., but did not reach Cameta until nine at night. 
In the course of our walk I chanced to verify a fact relating to the 
habits of a large hairy spider of the genus Mygale, in a manner worth 
recording. The species was M. avicularia, or one very closely allied to 
it; the individual was nearly two inches in length of body, but the legs 
expanded seven inches, and the entire body and legs were covered with 
coarse grey and reddish hairs. I was attracted by a movement of the 
monster on a tree-trunk ; it was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, 
across which was stretched a dense white web. The lower part of the 
web was broken, and two small birds, finches, were entangled in the 
pieces ; they were about the size of the English siskin, and I judged the 
two to be male and female. One of them was quite dead, the other 
