THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



mens t/f Morpho Cisseis measure seven inches 

 and a half in expanse. Another smaller 

 kind, which I could not capture, was of a 

 pale silvery-blue color, and the polished sur- 

 face of its wings flashed like a silver specu- 

 Jum, as the insect flapped its wings at a great 

 elevation in the sunlight. 



To resume our voyage. We left Villa 

 Nova on the 4th of December. A light wind 

 on the 5th carried us across to the opposite 

 shore and past the mouth of the Parana- 

 mirim do arco, or the little river of the bow, 

 so called on account of its being a short arm 

 of the main river, of a curved shape, rejoin- 

 ing the Amazons a little below Villa Nova. 

 On the 6th, after passing a large island in 

 mid-river, we arrived at a place where a line 

 of perpendicular clay cliffs, called the Bar- 

 reiros de Cararaucu, diverts slightly the 

 course of the main stream, as at Obydos. A 

 little below these cliffs were a few settlers' 

 houses : here Penua remained ten days to 

 trade, a delay which I turned to good account 

 in augmenting very considerably my collec- 

 tions. 



At the first house a festival was going for- 

 ward. We anchored at some distance from 

 the shore, on account of the water being 

 shoaly, and early in the morning three canoes 

 put off, laden with salt fish, oil of manatee, 

 fowls, and bananas, wares which the owners 

 wished to exchange for different articles re- 

 quired for the festa. Soon after I went 

 ashore. The head man was a tall, well- 

 made civilized Tapuyo, named Marcellino, 

 who, wkh his wife, a thin, active, wiry old 

 aquaw, did the honors of their house, I 

 thought, admirably. The company consist- 

 ed of fifty or* sixty Indians and mamelucos ; 

 some of them knew Portuguese, but the Tupi 

 language was the only one used among them- 

 selves. The festival was in honor of our 

 Lady of Conception; and when the people 

 learned that Penna had on board an image 

 of the saint handsomer than their own, they 

 put off in their canoes to borrow it ; Marcel- 

 lino taking charge of the doll, covering it 

 carefully with a neatly-bordered white towel. 

 On landing with the image, a procession was 

 formed from the port to the house, and 

 salutes fired from a couple of lazarino guns, 

 the saint being afterward carefully deposited 

 in the family oratorio. After a litany and 

 hymn were sung in the evening, all assem- 

 bled to supper around a large mat spread on 

 a smooth terrace-like space in front of the 

 house. The meal consisted of a large boiled 

 Pirarecu, which had beeu harpooned for the 

 purpose in the morning, stewed and roasted 

 turtle, piles of inaudioca-meal, and bananas. 

 The old lady, with two young girls, showed 

 the greatest activity in waiting on the guests, 

 Marcellino standing gravely bv, observing 

 what was wanted, and giving the necessary 

 orders to his wife. When all was done, hard 

 drinking began, and soon after there was a 

 dance, to which Penna and I were invited. 

 The liquor served was chiefly a spirit dis- 

 tilled by the people themselves from man- 

 dioca cakes. The dances were all of the 



same class, namely, different varieties of the 

 "landum," an erotic dance similar to tin* 

 fandango, originally learned from the Portu- 

 guese. The music was supplied by a couple 

 of wire-stringed guitars, played alternately 

 by the youug men. All passed off very- 

 quietly, considering the amount of strong 

 liquor drunk, and the ball was kept up until, 

 sunrise the next morning. 



We visited all the houses one after the 

 pthft-. One of them was situated in a charm- 

 ing spot, with a broad sandy beach before it, 

 at the entrance to the Parana-niirim do Mu- 

 carnbo, a channel leading to an interior lake, 

 peopled by savages of the Mura tribe. 

 This seemed to be the abode of an industri- 

 ous family, but all the men were absent, salt- 

 ing Pirarecu on the lakes. The house, like 

 its neighbors, was simply a framework of 

 poles thatched with palm-leaves, the walla; 

 roughly latticed and plastered with mud ;. 

 but it was larger, and much cleaner inside than 

 the others. It was full of women and chil- 

 dren, who were busy all day with their vari- 

 ous employments : some weaving hammoeks- 

 in a large clumsy frame, which held the warp- 

 while the shuttle was passed by the hand 

 slowly across the six feet breadth of web ; 

 others spinning cotton, and others again, 

 scraping, pressing, and roasting mandioca. 

 The family had cleared and cultivated a. 

 large piece of ground ; the soil was of ex- 

 traordinary richness, the perpendicular banks 

 of the river, near the house, revealing a 

 depth of many feet of crumbling vegetable 

 mould. There was a large plantation of to- 

 bacco, besides the usual patches of Indian 

 corn, sugar-cane, and maudioca ; and a 

 grove of cotton, cacao, coffee and fruit trees 

 surrounded the house. We passed two 

 nights at anchor in shoaly water off the 

 beach. The weather was most beautiful, 

 and scores of dolphins rolled and snorted 

 about the canoe all night. 



We crossed the river at this point, and en- 

 tered a narrow channel which penetrates the- 

 interior of the island of Tupinambarana, and 

 leads to & chain of lakes called the Lagos de 

 Cararaucu. A furious current swept along 

 the coast, eating into the crumbling earthy- 

 banks, and strewing the river with debris of" 

 the forest. The mouth of the channel lies 

 about twenty-five miles from Villa Nova ; 

 the entrance is only about forty yards broad, 

 but it expands, a short distance inland, into 

 a large sheet of water. We suffered ter-ibly 

 from insect pests during the twenty-four 

 hours we remained here. At night it vas 

 quite impossible to sleep for mosquitoes ; 

 they fell upon us by myriads, and without 

 much piping came straight at our faces as. 

 thick as raindrops in a shower. The men 

 crowded into the cabins, and then tried to 

 expel the pests by the smoke from burned 

 rags, but it was of little avail, although we- 

 were half suffocated during the operation. 

 In the daytime the Motuca, a much larger 

 and more formidable fly than the mosquito, 

 insisted upon levying his tax of blood. We 

 liad beeu tormented by it for many daj's pust,. 



