Cuap. XIII. AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL. 375 
a room thus decorated with foreign views would increase his importance 
amongst his neighbours, and when I yielded to his wish to keep them, 
was boundless in demonstration of gratitude, ending by shipping a boat- 
load of turtles for my use at Ega. 
These neglected and rude villagers still retained many religious 
practices which former missionaries or priests had taught them. The 
ceremony which they observed at Christmas, like that described as 
practised by negroes in a former chapter, was very pleasing for its 
simplicity, and for the heartiness with which it was conducted. The 
church was opened, dried, and swept clean a few days before Christmas- 
eve, and on the morning all the womenand children of the village were 
busy decorating it with festoons of leaves and wild flowers. Towards 
midnight it was illuminated inside and out with little oil lamps, made of 
clay, and the image of the “‘ menino Deus,” or Child-God, in its cradle, 
was placed below the altar, which was lighted up with rows of wax 
candles, very lean ones, but the best the poor people could afford. All 
the villagers assembled soon afterwards, dressed in their best, the 
women with flowers in their hair, and a*‘ few simple hymns, totally 
irrelevant to the occasion, but probably the only ones known by them, 
were sung kneeling ; an old half-caste, with black spotted face, leading 
off the tunes. ‘This finished, the congregation rose, and then marched 
in single file up one side of the church and down the other, singing 
together a very pretty marching chorus, and each one, on reaching 
the little image, stooping to kiss the end of the ribbon which was tied 
round its waist. Considering that the ceremony was got up of their 
own freewill, and at considerable expense, I thought it spoke well for 
the good intentions and simplicity of heart of these poor neglected 
villagers. 
I left Fonte Boa, for Ega, on the 25th of January, making the passage 
by steamer, down the middle of the current, in sixteen hours. The 
sight of the clean and neat little town, with its open spaces, close- 
cropped grass, broad lake, and white sandy shores, had a most exhilar- 
ating effect, after my trip into the wilder parts of the country. The 
district between Ega and Loreto, the first Peruvian village on the river, 
is, indeed, the most remote, thinly-peopled, and barbarous of the whole 
line of the Amazons, from ocean to ocean. Beyond Loreto, signs of 
civilisation, from the side of the Pacific, begin to be numerous ; and 
from Ega, downwards, the improvement is felt from the side of the 
Atlantic. 
September 5th, 1857.—Again embarked on the Zaédatinga, this time 
for a longer excursion than the last, namely, to St. Paulo de Olivenga, 
a village higher up than any I had yet visited, being 260 miles distant in 
a straight line from Ega, or about 400 miles following the bends of the 
river. 
The waters were now nearly at their lowest point ; but this made no 
difference to the rate of travelling, night or day. Several of the Parana- 
mirims, or by-channels, which the steamer threads in the season of full- 
water, to save a long circuit, were now dried up, their empty beds 
looking like deep sandy ravines in the midst of the thick forest. The 
large sand islands, and miles of sandy beach, were also uncovered ; and 
