Cuap. XIII. THE TUCUNAS INDIANS. 381 
a chief of more or less influence, according to his energy and ambition, 
and possessing its pajé or medicine man, who fosters its superstitions ; 
but they are much more idle and debauched than other Indians belong- 
ing to the superior tribes. They are not so warlike and loyal as the 
Munduructs, although resembling them in many respects, nor have they 
the slender figures, dignified mien, and gentle disposition of the Passés ; 
there are, however, no trenchant points of difference to distinguish them 
from these highest of all the tribes. Both men and women are tattooed, 
the pattern being sometimes a scroll on each cheek, but generally rows 
of short straight lines on the face. Most of the older people wear brace- 
lets, anklets, and garters of tapir-hide or tough bark ; in their homes they 
wear no other dress except on festival days, when they ornament them- 
selves with feathers or masked cloaks made of the inner bark of a tree. 
They were very shy when I made my first visits to their habitations in 
the forest, all scampering off to the thicket when I approached, but on 
subsequent days they became more familiar, and I found them a harm. 
less, good-natured people. 
A great part of the horde living at the first Maloca or village dwell in 
a common habitation, a large oblong hut built and arranged inside with 
such a disregard of all symmetry, that it appeared as though constructed 
by a number of hands, each working independently, stretching a rafter 
or fitting in a piece of thatch, without reference to what his fellow- 
labourers were doing. The walls as well as the roof are covered with 
thatch of palm-leaves; each piece consisting of leaflets plaited and 
attached in a row to a lath many feet in length. Strong upright posts 
support the roof, hammocks being slung between them, leaving a free 
space for passage and for fires in the middle, and on one side is an elevated 
stage (g¢?vao) overhead, formed of split palm-stems. The Tuctnas excel 
most of the other tribes in the manufacture of pottery. They make 
broad-mouthed jars, for Tucupf sauce, caystma or mandioca beer, 
capable of holding twenty or more gallons, ornamenting them outside 
with crossed diagonal streaks of various colours. These jars, with cook- 
ing-pots, smaller jars for holding water, blow-pipes, quivers, matirf bags * 
full of small articles, baskets, skins of animals, and so forth, form the 
principal part of the furniture of their huts, both large and small. The 
dead bodies of their chiefs are interred, the knees doubled up, in large 
jars under the floors of their huts. 
The semi-religious dances and drinking bouts usual amongst the 
settled tribes of Amazonian Indians are indulged in to greater excess 
by the Tuctinas than they are by most other tribes. The Jurupari or 
Demon is the only superior being they have any conception of, and his 
name is mixed up with all their ceremonies, but it,is difficult to ascertain 
what they consider to be his attributes. He seems to be believed in 
simply as a mischievous imp, who is at the bottom of all those mishaps 
* These bags are formed of remarkably neat twine made of Bromelia fibres 
elaborately knitted, all in one piece, with sticks ; a belt of the same material, but more 
closely woven, being attached to the top to suspend them by. They afford good 
examples of the mechanical ability of these Indians. The Tuctnas also possess the 
art of skinning and stuffing birds, the handsome kinds of which they sell in great 
numbers to passing travellers. 
