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roof is thatched with large triangular leaves, neatly arranged in regu- 

 lar alternate rows, and bound to the rafters with sipos or forest creep- 

 ers ; the leaves are those of the Carana palm. The door of the house 

 is a framework of thin hard strips of wood neatly thatched over; it is 

 made of the split stems of the Pashiuba palm. In one corner stands a 

 heavy harpoon for catching the cow-fish ; it is formed of the black wood 

 of the Pashiuba barriguda. By its side is a blowpipe ten or twelve 

 feet long, and a little quiver full of small poisoned arrows hangs up 

 near it ; with these the Indian procures birds for food, or for their gay 

 feathers, or even brings down the wild hog or the tapir, and it is from 

 the stem and spines of two species of palms that they are made. His 

 great bassoon-like musical instruments are made of palm stems ; the 

 cloth in which he wraps his most valued feather ornaments is a fibrous 

 palm spathe, and the rude chest in which he keeps his treasures is 

 woven from palm leaves. His hammock, his bow-string and his fish- 

 ing-line are from the fibres of leaves which he obtains from different 

 palm trees, according the qualities he requires in them, — the ham- 

 mock from the Miriti, and the bow-string and fishing-line from the 

 Tuctim. The comb which he wears on his head is ingeniously con- 

 structed of the hard bark of a palm, and he makes fish-hooks of the 

 spines, or uses them to puncture on his skin the peculiar markings of 

 his tribe. His children are eating the agreeable red and yellow fruit 

 of the Pupunha or peach palm, and from that of the Assai he has pre- 

 pared a favourite drink which he offers you to taste. That carefully 

 suspended gourd contains oil, which he has extracted from the fruit 

 of another species ; and that long elastic plaited cylinder used for 

 squeezing dry the mandiocca pulp to make his bread, is made of the 

 bark of one of the singular climbing palms, which alone can resist for 

 a considerable time the action of the poisonous juice. In each of 

 these cases a species is selected better adapted than the rest for the 

 peculiar purpose to which it is applied, and often having several dif- 

 ferent uses which no other plant can serve as well, so that some little 

 idea may be formed of how important to the South American Indian 

 must be these noble trees, which supply so many daily wants, giving 

 him his house, his food, and his weapons." — P. 9. 



If we turn from this comprehensive picture to either individual 

 palm-portrait, whether of pen or pencil, we shall find it sketched with 

 the same freedom of hand, and finished with the same painstaking 

 care. Take, for instance, the following : — 



Assai (Euterpe oleracea). — "This species is very abundant in 

 the neighbourhood of Para, and even in the city itself. It grows in 



