144 LOWER AMAZONS—OBYDOS TO MANAOS. Cuap. VII, 
species of bird called by the natives Tamburi-pard, on the Cecropia 
trees. It is the Monasa nigrifrons of ornithologists, and has a plain 
slate-coloured plumage, with the beak of an orange hue. It belongs to 
the family of Barbets, most of whose members are remarkable for their 
dull inactive temperament. Those species which are arranged by orni- 
thologists under the genus Bucco are called by the Indians, in the Tupi 
language, Tai-assti uird, or pig-birds. They remain seated sometimes 
for hours together on low branches in the shade, and are stimulated to 
exertion only when attracted by passing insects. This flock of Tamburi- 
para were the reverse of dull; they were gambolling and chasing each 
other amongst the branches. As they sported about, each emitted a 
few short tuneful notes, which altogether produced a ringing musical 
chorus that surprised me. 
On the 27th we reached an elevated wooden promontory, called 
Parentins, which now forms the boundary between the provinces of 
Pard and the Amazons. Here we met a small canoe descending to 
Santarem. The owner was a free negro named Lima, who, with his 
wife, was going down the river to exchange his year’s crop of tobacco for 
European merchandise. The long shallow canoe was laden nearly to 
the water level. He resided on the banks of the Abacaxi, a river 
which discharges its waters into the Canoma, a broad interior channel 
which extends from the river Madeira to the Parentins, a distance of 
180 miles. Penna offered him advantageous terms, so a bargain was. 
struck, and the man saved his long journey. The negro seemed a 
frank, straightforward fellow ; he was a native of Pernambuco, but had 
settled many years ago in this part of the country. He had with him a 
little Indian girl belonging to the Mauhés tribe, whose native seat is the 
district of country lying in the rear of the Canomda, between the Madeira 
and the Tapajos. ‘The Mauhés are considered, I think with truth, to 
be a branch of the great Munduructi nation, having segregated from 
them at a remote period, and by long isolation acquired different 
customs and a totally different language, in a manner which seems to 
have been general with the Brazilian aborigines. ‘The Munduructis seem 
to have retained more of the general characteristics of the original Tupt 
stock than the Mauhés. Senhor Lima told me, what I afterwards found 
to be correct, that there were scarcely two words alike in the languages 
of the two peoples, although there are words closely allied to Tupi in 
both.* The little girl had not the slightest trace of the savage in her 
appearance. Her features were finely shaped, the cheek-bones not at all 
prominent, the lips thin, and the expression of her countenance frank 
and smiling. She had been brought only a few weeks previously from 
a remote settlement of her tribe on the banks of the Abacaxi, and did 
not yet know five words of Portuguese. The Indians, as a general rule, 
are very manageable when they are young, but it is a general com- 
plaint that when they reach the age of puberty they become restless and 
discontented. The rooted impatience of all restraint then shows itself, 
and the kindest treatment will not prevent them running away from 
* Thus the word Woman, in Mauhé, is Uniha; in Tupi, Cunha; in Munduruci,, 
Taishi. Fire, in Mauhé, is Aria ; in Tupi, Tata; in Munduructi, Idasha or Tasha, 
