1'HE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



685 



small fishes; when old it has the taste of 

 essence of anchovies. It is generally made 

 as a liquid, but the Juii and Miianha tribes 

 on the Japura, make it up in the form of a 

 black paste, by a mode of preparation I could 

 not learn : it is then called Tucupi-pixuua, 

 or black Tucupi. I have seen the Indians on 

 the Tapajos, where fish is scarce, season Tu- 

 cupi with Saiiba ants. It is there used chiefly 

 as a sauce to Tacaea, another preparation 

 from maudioca, consisting of the staich 

 beaten up in boiling water. 



I thoroughly enjoyed the nine days we 

 spent at this place. Our host and hostess 

 took an interest in my pursuit ; one of the 

 best chambers in the house was given up to 

 me, and the young men took me long ram- 

 bles in the neighboring forests. I saw very 

 little hard work goiug forward. Every one 

 rose with the dawn, and went down to tko 

 river to bathe ; then came the never-failing 

 cup of rich and strong coffee, after which all 

 proceeded to their avocations. At this time 

 nothing was being done at the plantations ; 

 the cacao aud tobacco crops were not ripe ; 

 weeding time was over, and the only work 

 on foot was the preparation of a little farinha 

 by the women. The men dawdled about : 

 went shooting and fishing, or did trifling jobs 

 about the house. The only laborious work 

 dou3 during the year in these establishments 

 is the felling of timber for new clearings; 

 this happens at the beginning of the dry sea- 

 son, namely, from July to September. What- 

 ever employment the people were engaged 

 in, they did not intermit it during the hot 

 liours of the day. Those who went into the 

 woods took their dinners with them a small 

 bag of farinha and a slice of salt fish. About 

 .sunset all returned to the house ; they then 

 liad tl>eir frugal suppers, and toward eight 

 o'clock, after coming to ask a blessing of the 

 patriarchal head of the household, went off 

 to their hammocks to sleep. 



John Trinidade was famous for his tobacco 

 -and cigarettes, as he took great pains in pre- 

 paring the Tauari, or envelope, which is 

 formed of the inner bark of a tree, separated 

 into thin papery layers. Many trees yield it, 

 among them the Courataria Guianensis and 

 the Sapucaya nut-tree, both belonging to the 

 same natural order. The bark is cut in long 

 strips, of a breadth suitable for folding the 

 tobacco ; the inner portion is then separated, 

 boiled, hammered with a wooden mallet, and 

 exposed to the air for a few hours. Some 

 kinds have a reddish color and an astringent 

 taste, but the sort prepared by our host was 

 of a beautiful satiny -white hue, and perfectly 

 tasteless. He obtained sixty, eighty, and 

 sometimes a hundred layers from the same 

 strip of bark. The best tobaocn in Brazil is 

 .grown in the neighborhood of Borba, 01 the 

 Madeira, where the soil is a rich black H>t,m ; 

 but tobacco of very good quality was grown 

 by John Triuidade and his neighbors abng 

 this coast, on similar soil. It is mat? "ip 

 -into slender rolls, an inch and <i hai: in 

 diameter and six feet in length, lapering s.t 

 *s*ch end. When the leaves are itulhered *uni 



partially dried, layers of them, after the mid 

 ribs are plucked out, are placed ou a mat and 

 rolled up into the required shape. This is 

 done by the women and children, who also 

 manage the planting, weeding, and gathering 

 of the tobacco. The process of tightening 

 the rolls is a long and heavy task, and can 

 be done only by men. The cords used for 

 this purpose are of very great strength. 

 They are made of the inner bark of a peculiar 

 light-wooded and slender tree, called Uais 

 sima, which yields, when beaten out, a great 

 quantity of most beautiful silky fibre, many 

 feet in length. I think this might be turned 

 to some use by English manufacturers, if 

 they could obtain it in large quantity. The 

 tree is abundant on light soils on the south- 

 ern side of the Lower Amazons, and grows 

 very rapidly. When the rolls are sufficiently 

 Well pressed, they are bound round with nar- 

 row thongs of remarkable toughness, cut 

 from the bark of the climbing Jacitara palm- 

 tree (Desmoncus macrancathus), and are then 

 ready for sale or use. 



It was very pleasant to roam in our host's 

 cacaoal. The ground was clear of under- 

 wood, the trees were about thirty feet in 

 height, and formed, a dense shade. Two 

 species of monkey frequented the trees, and, 

 I was told, committed great 'depredations 

 when the fruit was ripe. One of these, the 

 macaco prego (Cebus cirrhifer ?), is a most im- 

 pudent thief ; it destroys more than it eats, 

 by its random, hasty way of plucking and 

 breaking the fruits, and when about to re- 

 turn to the forest carries away all it can in 

 its hands or under its arms. The other spe- 

 cies, the pretty little Chrysothrix sciureus, 

 contents itself with devouring what it can on 

 the spot. A variety of beautiful insects 

 basked on the foliage, where stray gleams of 

 sunlight glanced through the canopy of broad 

 soft-green leaves, and numbers of an elegant 

 long-legged tiger-beetle (Odontocheila egre- 

 gia) ran and flew about over the herbage. 



We left this place on the 8th of January, 

 and on the afternoon of the 9th arrived at 

 Matari, a miserable little settlement of Mtiia 

 Indians. Here we again anchored and WCIH 

 ashore. The place consisted of about twenty 

 slightly-built mud hovels, and had a most 

 forlorn appearance, notwithstanding the lux- 

 uriant forest in its rear. A horde of these 

 Indians settled here many years ago, on the 

 site of an abandoned missionary station, and 

 the Government had lately placed a resident 

 director over them, with the intention of 

 bringing the hitherto intractable savages un- 

 der authority. This, however, seemed to 

 promise no other result than that cf driving 

 them to thefr old solitary haunts, on th 

 banks of the interior waters, for many fam- 

 ilies had already withdrawn themselves. 

 The absence of the usual cultivated trees and 

 plants gave the place a naked and poverty- 

 stricken aspect. I entered one of the hovels, 

 where several women were employed cook- 

 ing a meal. Portions of a large" fish were 

 resting over a fire made in the middle of the 

 Vow ( Liatnber, and the entrails were scattered 



