294 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XI. 
dozo’s Indian housekeeper at Ega, and were purely complimentary. 
This studied politeness is quite natural to Indians of the advanced 
agricultural tribes. ‘The language used was Tupi: I heard no other 
spoken all the day. It must be borne in mind that Pedro-uasst had 
never had much intercourse with whites: he was, although baptised, a 
primitive Indian, who had always lived in retirement ; the ceremony of 
baptism having been gone through, as it generally is by the aborigines, 
simply from a wish to stand well with the whites. 
Arrived at the house, we were welcomed by Pedro’s wife: a thin, 
wrinkled, active old squaw, tattooed in precisely the same way as her 
husband. She had also sharp features, but her manner was more 
cordial and quicker than that of her husband; she talked much and 
with great inflection of voice; whilst the tones of the old man were 
rather drawling and querulous. Her clothing was a long petticoat of thick 
cotton cloth, and a very short chemise, not reaching to her waist. I was 
rather surprised to find the grounds around the establishment in neater 
order than in any sitio, even of civilised people, I had yet seen on the 
Upper Amazons : the stock of utensils and household goods of all sorts 
was larger, and the evidences of regular industry and plenty more 
numerous than one usually perceives in the farms of civilised Indians 
and whites. The buildings were of the same construction as those of 
the humbler settlers in all other parts of the country. The family lived 
in a large, oblong, open shed built under the shade of trees. Two 
smaller buildings, detached from the shed, and having mud walls with 
low doorways, contained apparently the sleeping apartments of different 
members of the large household. A small mill for grinding sugar-cane, 
having two cylinders of hard notched wood ; wooden troughs, and 
kettles for boiling the guardpa (cane juice), to make treacle, stood 
under a separate shed, and near it was a large enclosed mud-house for 
poultry. There was another hut and shed a short distance off, inhabited 
by a family dependent on Pedro, and a narrow pathway through the 
luxuriant woods led to more dwellings of the same kind. There was 
an abundance of fruit trees around the place, including the never-failing 
banana, with its long, broad, soft green leaf-blades, and groups of full grown 
Pupinhas, or peach palms. There was also a large number of cotton and 
coffee trees. Amongst the utensils I noticed baskets of different shapes, 
made of flattened maranta stalks, and dyed various colours. The 
making of these is an original art of the Passés, but I believe it is also 
practised by other tribes, for I saw several in the houses of semi- 
civilised Indians on the Tapajos. 
There were only three persons in the house besides the old couple, 
the rest of the people being absent ; several came in, however, in the 
course of the day. One was a daughter of Pedro’s, who had an oval 
tattooed spot over her mouth ; the second was a young grandson ; and the 
third the son-in-law from Ega, Cardozo’s compadre. The old woman 
was occupied, when we entered, in distilling spirits from card, an eatable 
root similar to the potato, by means of a clay still, which had been 
manufactured by herself. The liquor had a reddish tint, but not a very 
agreeable flavour. A cup of it, warm from the still, however, was 
welcome after our long journey. Cardozo liked it, emptied his cup, and 
