Cuap. XI. THE PASSES. 29) 
When we returned to the house after mid-day, Cardozo was still 
sipping cauim, and now looked exceedingly merry. It was fearfully 
hot: the good fellow sat in his hammock with a cuya full of grog in 
his hands ; his broad honest face all of a glow, and the perspiration 
streaming down his uncovered breast, the unbuttoned shirt having 
slipped half-way over his broad shoulders. Pedro-uasst had not drunk 
much ; he was noted, as I afterwards learnt, for his temperance. But 
he was standing up as I had left him two hours previously, talking to 
Cardozo in the same monotonous tones, the conversation apparently 
not having flagged all the time. I had never heard so much talking 
amongst Indians. The widower was asleep: the stirring, managing 
old lady with her daughter, were preparing dinner. This, which was 
ready soon after I entered, consisted of boiled fowls and rice, seasoned 
with large green peppers and lemon juice, and piles of new, fragrant 
farinha and raw. bananas. It was served on plates of English manu- 
facture on a tupé, or large plaited rush mat, such as is made by the 
natives pretty generally on the Amazons. Three or four other Indians, 
men and women of middle age, now made their appearance, and joined 
in the meal. We all sat round on the floor : the women, according to 
custom, not eating until after the men had done. Before sitting down 
our host apologised, in his usual quiet, courteous manner, for not 
having knives and forks ; Cardozo and I ate by the aid of wooden 
spoons, the Indians using their fingers. The old man waited until we 
were all served before he himself commenced. At the end of the meal 
one of the women brought us water in a painted clay basin of Indian 
manufacture, and a clean but coarse cotton napkin, that we might wash 
our hands. 
The horde of Passés of which Pedro-uassti was Tushatia or chieftain, 
was at this time reduced to a very small number of individuals. The 
disease mentioned in the last chapter had for several generations made 
great havoc amongst them ; many also had entered the service of whites 
at Ega, and, of late years, intermarriages with whites, half-castes, and 
civilised Indians had been frequent The old man bewailed the fate 
of his race to Cardozo with tears in his eyes. ‘The people of my 
nation,” he said, “have always been good friends to the Cariwas 
(whites), but before my grandchildren are old like me the name of 
Passé will be forgotten.” In so far as the Passés have amalgamated 
with European immigrants or their descendants, and become civilised 
Brazilian citizens, there can scarcely be ground for lamenting their ex- 
tinction as a nation ; but it fills one with regret to learn how many die 
prematurely of a disease which seems to arise on their simply breathing 
the same air as the whites. The original territory of the tribe must 
have been of large extent, for Passés are said to have been found 
by the early Portuguese colonists on the Rio Negro; an ancient 
settlement on that river, Barcellos, having been peopled by them 
when it was first established ; and they formed also part of the original 
population of Fonte-boa on the Solimoens. ‘Their hordes were there- 
fore spread over a region 400 miles in length from east to west. It is 
probable, however, that they have been confounded by the colonists 
with other neighbouring tribes who tattoo their faces in a similar 
