368 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Cuap. XIII. 
of the path. The road, though smooth, was narrow and dark, and in 
many places blocked up by trunks of felled trees, which had been 
apparently thrown across by the timid Indians on purpose to obstruct 
the way to their habitations. Half a mile of this shady road brought me 
to a small open space on the banks of a brook or creek, on the skirts of 
which stood a conical hut with a very low doorway. There was also an 
open shed, with stage made of split palm-stems, and a number of large 
wooden troughs. ‘Two or three dark-skinned children, with a man and 
woman, were in the shed ; but, immediately on espying me, all of them 
ran to the hut, bolting through the little doorway like so many wild 
animals scared into their burrows. A few moments after the man put 
his head out with a look of great distrust ; but on my making the most 
friendly gestures I could think of, he came forth with the children. 
They were all smeared with black mud and paint; the only clothing of 
the elders was a kind of apron made of the inner bark of the sapucaya 
tree, and the savage aspect of the man was heightened by his hair 
hanging over his forehead to the eyes. I stayed about two hours in the 
neighbourhood, the children gaining sufficient confidence to come and 
help me to search for insects. The only weapon used by the Caishanas 
is the blow-pipe, and this is employed only in shooting animals for food. 
They are not a warlike people, like most of the neighbouring tribes on 
the Japurad and Issa. ‘Their utensils consist of earthenware cooking- 
vessels, wooden stools, drinking-cups of gourds, and the usual apparatus 
for making farinha, of which they produce a considerable quantity, 
selling the surplus to traders at Tunantins. 
The whole tribe of Caishanas does not exceed in number 400 souls. 
None of them are baptised Indians, and they do not dwell in villages, 
like the more advanced sections of the Tupi stock ; but each family has 
its own solitary hut. They are quite harmless, do not practise tattooing, 
or perforate their ears and noses in any way. ‘Their social condition is of 
a low type, very little removed, indeed, from that of the brutes living in 
the same forests. They do not appear to obey any common chief, and 
I could not make out that they had Pajés, or medicine men, those 
rudest beginnings of a priest class. Symbolical or masked dances, and 
ceremonies in honour of the Jurupari, or demon, customs which pre- 
vail amongst all the surrounding tribes, are unknown to the Caishanas. 
There is amongst them a trace of festival keeping; but the only 
ceremony used is the drinking of cashiri beer, and fermented liquors 
made of Indian corn, bananas, and so forth. These affairs, however, are 
conducted in a degenerate style, for they do not drink to intoxication, or 
sustain the orgies for several days and nights in succession, like the 
Juris, Passés, and Tucunas. The men play a musical instrument, made 
of pieces of stem of the arrow-grass cut in different lengths and arranged 
like Pan-pipes. With this they while away whole hours, lolling in 
ragged bast hammocks slung in their dark, smoky huts. The Tunantins 
people say that the Caishanas have persecuted the wild animals and 
birds to such an extent near their settlements, that there is now quite 
a scarcity of animal food. If they kill a toucan, it is considered an 
important event, and the bird is made to serve as a meal for a score or 
more persons. They boil the meat in earthenware kettles filled with 
’ 
