THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



681 



feind I shall mention is the Coral snake, 

 -which is a most beautiful object when seen 

 coiled up on black soil in the woods. The 

 one I saw here was banded with black and 

 vermilion, the black bands having each two 

 clear white rings. The state of specimens 

 preserved in spirits can give no idea of the 

 brilliant colors which adorn the Coral snake 

 in life. 



In company with Petzell, a German settler 

 near Caripi, I made many excursions of long 

 ex lent in the neighboring forest. We some- 

 times went to Murucupi, a cieek which 

 passes through the forest about four miles 

 behind Caripi, the banks of which are inhab- 

 ited by Indians and half-breeds, who have 

 Jived there for many generations in perfect 

 seclusion from the rest of the world, the place 

 being little known or frequented. A path 

 from Caripi leads to it through a gloomy 

 tract of virgin forest, where the trees are so 

 closely packed together that the ground be- 

 neath is thrown into the deepest shade, under 

 which nothing but fetid fungi and rotting 

 vegetable debris is to be seen. On emerging 

 from this unfriendly solitude near the banks 



of the Murucupi, a charming contrast is pre- 

 sented. A glorious vegetation, piled up to 

 an immense height, clothes the banks of the 

 creek, which traverses a broad tract of semi- 

 cultivated ground, and the varied masses of 

 greenery are lighted up with a sunny glow. 

 Open palm-thatched huts peep forth here 



. and there from amid groves of banana, 

 mango, cotton, and papaw trees and pulms. 

 On our first excursion, we struck the bauks 

 of the river in front of a house of somewhat 

 more substantial architecture than the rest, 

 having finished mud walls, plastered and 

 whitewashed, and a covering of red tiles. It 



. seemed to be full of children, and the aspect 

 of the household was improved by a number 

 of good-looking mameluco women, who were 

 busily employed washing, spinning, and 

 making farinha. Two of them, seated on a 

 mat in the open veranda, were eugaged sew. 

 ing dresses ; for a festival was going to take 

 place a few days hence at Balcarem, a village 



'fight miles distant from Murucupi, and they 

 intended to be present to hear mass and show 

 their finery. One of the children, a naked 

 boy about seven years of age, crossed over 

 with the montaria to fetch us. We were 

 made welcome at ouce, aud asked to slay for 

 dinner. On our accepting the invitation a 

 couple of fowls were killed, and a wholesome 

 stew of seasoned rice and fowls soon put in 

 preparation. It is not often that the female 

 members of a family in these retired places 

 are familiar with strangers ; but these people 

 had lived a long time in the capital, and 



.therefore were more civilized than their neigh- 

 bors. Their father had been a prosperous 

 tradesman and had given them the best ed- 

 ucation the place afforded. After his death 

 the widow with several daughters, married 



: and unmarried, retired to this secluded spot, 

 which had been their sitio, farm or country 



i house, for many years. One of the daugh- 



ters was married to a handsome young mi'. 

 latto, who was preset jid sang us soms 

 pretty songs, accompanying himself on tb.3 

 guitar. 



After dinner I expressed r, wish to 833 

 more of the creek, so a lively and polite old 

 man, whom I took to be one of the neighbors, 

 volunteered as guide. We embarked in a 

 little montaria, and paddled some three or 

 four miles up and down the stream. Although 

 I had now become familiarized with beauti- 

 ful vegetation, all the glow of fresh admiration 

 came again to me in this place. The creek 

 was ab nit one hundred yards wide, but nar- 

 rower in some places. Both banks were mask- 

 ed by lofty walls of green drapery, here and 

 there a break occurring, through which, under 

 over-arching trees, glimpses were obtained of 

 the palm-thatched huts of settlers. The pro- 

 jecting boughs of lofty trees, which in soms 

 places stretched half-way across the creek, 

 were hung with natural garlands and festoons, 

 and an endless variety af creeping plants 

 clothed the water-frontage, seme of which, 

 especially the Bignonias, were ornamented 

 with large gayly-colored flowers. Art could 

 not have assorted together beautiful vegetable 

 forms so harmoniously as was here done by 

 nature. Palms, as usual, formed a large pro- 

 portion of the lower trees ; some of them, 

 however, shot up their slim stems to a height 

 of sixty feet or more, and waved their 

 bunches of nodding plumes between us and 

 the sky. One kind of palm, the Pashhiba 

 (Iriartea exorhiza), which grows here h 

 greater abundance than elsewhere, was espe 

 cially attractive. It is not one of the tallest 

 kinds, for when full-grown its height is not 

 more, perhaps, than. forty feet ; the leaves 

 are somewhat less drooping, and the leaflets 

 much broader than in other species, so that 

 they have not that feathery appearance which 

 some of those palms have, but still they pos- 

 sess their own peculiar beauty. My guide 

 put me ashore in one place to show me the 

 roots of the Pashiuba. These grow above 

 ground, radiating from the trunk many feet 

 above the surface, so that the tree looks as if 

 supported on stilts ; and a person can, in old 

 trees, stand upright among the roots with the 

 perpendicular stem wholly above his head. 

 It adds to the singularity of their unnearance 

 that these roots, which have the form of 

 straight rods, are studded with stcnt thorns, 

 while the trunk of the tree is quite smooth. 

 The purpose of this curious arrangement ic. 

 perhaps, similar to that of the buttress roots 

 already described namely, to recompense 

 the tree by root growth above ths soil for its 

 inability, in consequence of the competition 

 of neighboring roots, to extend it under- 

 ground. The great amount of mcisture and 

 nutriment contained in the atmosphere may 

 aUo favor these growths. 



On returning to the house, I fcund Petzell 

 had been well occupied during the hot hours 

 of the day collecting insects in a neighboring 

 clearing. Our kind hosts gave us a cup of 

 coffee about five o'clock, and we then started 

 for home. The last mile of our v.'Lik was 



