276 UPPER AMAZONS—VOYAGE TO EGA. Crap. X. 
support his feet with, in embracing the slippery shaft, and then mount 
upwards by a succession of slight jerks. It was very amusing, during 
the first few weeks, to witness the glee and pride with which he would 
bring to me the bunches of fruit he had gathered from almost in- 
accessible trees. He avoided the company of boys of his own race, 
and was evidently proud of being the servant of a real white man. We 
brought him down with us to Para; but he showed no emotion at any 
of the strange sights of the capital: the steam-vessels, large ships and 
houses, horses and carriages, the pomp of church ceremonies, and so 
forth. In this he exhibited the usual dulness of feeling and poverty of 
thought of the Indian ; he had, nevertheless, very keen perceptions, and 
was quick at learning any mechanical art. José, who had resumed, 
some time before I left the country, his old trade of goldsmith, made 
him his apprentice, and he made very rapid progress; for after about 
three months’ teaching he came tome one day with radiant countenance, 
and showed me a gold ring of his own making. 
The fate of the little girl, who came with a second batch of children 
all ill of intermittent fever, a month or two after Sebastian, was very 
different. She was brought to our house, after landing, one night in 
the wet season, when the rain was pouring in torrents, thin and haggard, 
drenched with wet, and shivering with ague. An old Indian who 
brought her to the door, said briefly, “ecui encommenda” (here’s your 
little parcel, or order), and went away. ‘There was very little of the 
savage in her appearance, and she was of a much lighter colour than 
the boy. We found she was of the Mirdnha tribe, all of whom are 
distinguished by a slit, cut in the middle of each wing of the nose, in 
which they wear on their holiday occasions a large button made of 
pearly river-shell. We took the greatest care of our little patient ; had 
the best nurses in the town, fomented her daily, gave her quinine and 
the most nourishing food ; but it was all of no avail: she sank rapidly ; 
her liver was enormously swollen, and almost as hard to the touch as 
stone. There was something uncommonly pleasing in her ways, and 
quite unlike anything I had yet seen in Indians. Instead of being dull 
and taciturn, she was always smiling and full of talk. We had an old 
woman of the same tribe to attend her, who explained what she said to 
us. She often begged to be taken to the river to bathe ; asked for fruit, 
or coveted articles she saw in the room for playthings. Her native 
name was Oria. The last week or two she could not rise from the bed 
we had made for her in a dry corner of the room: when she wanted 
lifting, which was very often, she would allow no one to help her but 
me, calling me by the name of “ Cariwa” (white man), the only word of 
Tupi she seemed to know. It was inexpressibly touching to hear her, 
as she lay, repeating by the hour the verses which she had heen taught 
to recite with her companions in her native village: a few sentences 
repeated over and over again with a rhythmic accent, and relating to 
objects and incidents connected with the wild life of her tribe. We had 
her baptised before she died, and when this latter event happened, in 
opposition to the wishes of the big people of Ega I insisted on burying 
her with the same honours as a child of the whites; that is, as an 
“‘anjinho ” (little angel), according to the pretty Roman Catholic custora 
