686 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



about the floor, on which the women WHO. 

 their children were squatted. These had a 

 timid, distrustful expression of countenance, 

 and their bodies were begrimed with black 

 mud, which is smeared over the skin as a 

 protection against mosquitoes. The children 

 were naked> the women wore petticoats uf 

 coarse cloth, ragged round the edges, and 

 stained in blotches with murixi. a dye made 

 from the bark of a tree. One of them wore a 

 necklace of monkey's teeth. There were 

 scarcely any household utensils ; the place 

 was bare with the exception of two dirty grass 

 hammocks hung in the corners. I missed 

 the usual mandioca sheds behind the house, 

 with their surrounding cot ton, cacao, coffee, 

 and lemon trees. Two or three young men 

 of the tribe were lounging about the low 

 open doorway. They were stoutly-built fel- 

 lows, but less well-proportioned than the 

 semi- civilized Indians of the Lower Amazons 

 generally are. Their breadth of chest was 

 remarkable, and their arms were wonderfully 

 thick and muscular. The legs appeared 

 short in proportion to the trunk ; the expres- 

 sion of their countenances was unmistakably 

 more sullen and brutal, and the skin of a 

 darker hue, than is common in the Brazilian 

 red man. Before we left tne hut an old 

 couple came, in ; the husband carrying his 

 paddle, bow, arrows, and harpoon, the 

 woman bent beneath the weight of a large 

 basket filled with palm fiuits. The man was 

 of low stature and had a wild appearance 

 from the long coarse hair which hung over 

 his forehead. Both his lips were pierced 

 with holes, as is usual with the older Muras 

 seen on the river. They used formerly to 

 wear tusks of the wild hog in these holes 

 whenever they went out to encounter stran- 

 gers or their enemies in war. The gloom}' 

 savagery, filth, and poverty of the people in 

 this place made me feel quite melancholy, 

 and I was glad to return to the canoe. They 

 offered us no civilities ; they did not even 

 pass the ordinary salutes, which all the semi- 

 civilized and many savage Indians proffer on 

 a first meeting. The men persecuted Penna 

 for cashaca, which they seemed to consider 

 the only good thing the white man brings 

 with him. As they had nothing whatever to 

 give in exchange, Penna declined to supply 

 them. They followed us as we descended to 

 the port, becoming very troublesome when 

 about a dozen had collected together. They 

 brought their empty bottles wit a them, and 

 promised fish and turtle, if we would only 

 trust them lirst with the coveted aguardente, 

 or oau-im, as they called it. Penna was in- 

 exorable : he ordered the crew to weigh an- 

 chor, and the disappointed savages lemained 

 hooting after us with all their might, from 

 the top of the bank, as we glided away. 



After leaving Maturi we continued oar 

 voyage along the northern shore. The banks 

 of the river "were of moderate elevation dur- 

 ing several days' journey ; the terra firma 

 lying far in the interior, and the coast being 

 either low land, or masked with islands of 

 alluvial formation. On the 14th we passed 



the upper mouth of the Parana-mirim de; 

 Eva, an arm of the river of small breadth, 

 formed by a straggling island some ten miles, 

 in length, lying parallel to the northern bank. 

 On passing the western end of this the main- 

 land again appeared, a rather high rocky 

 coast, clothed with a magnificent forest of 

 rounded outline which continues hence for 

 twenty miles to the mouth of the Rio Negro,, 

 and forms the eastern shore of that river.. 

 Many houses of settlers, built at a consider- 

 able elevation on the wooded heights, now- 

 enlivened the river banks. One of the first 

 objects which here greeted us was a beauti- 

 ful bird we had not hitherto met with, 

 namely, the scarlet and black tr.nager (Rain- 

 phocoalus nigrogularis), flocks of which were 

 seen sporting about the trees on the edge of 

 the water, their flame-colored liveries light- 

 ing up the masses of dark-green foliage. 



The weather, from the 14th to the 18th, 

 was wretched ; it rained sometimes for* 

 twelve hours in succession, not heavily, but 

 in a steady drizzle, such as we are familiar 

 with in our English climate. We lauded at 

 several places on the coast, Penna to trade as 

 usual, and I to ramble in the forest in search 

 of birds and insects. In one spot the wooded 

 slope inclosed a very picturesque scene : a 

 brook, flowing through a ravine in the high 

 bank, fell in many little cascades to tho 

 broad river beneath, its margins decked out. 

 with an infinite variety of beautiful plants. 

 Wild bananas arched over the water-course, 

 and the trunks of the trees in its vicinity 

 were clothed with ferns, large-leaved species 

 belonging to the genus Lygodium, which, 

 like Osmimda, have their spore-cases collect- 

 ed together on contracted leaves. On the 

 18th we arrived at a large fazenda (plantation 

 and cattle farm), called Jatuarana. A rocky- 

 point here projects into the stream, and as 

 WB found it impossible to stem the strong 

 current which whirled round it, we crossed. 

 over to the southern shore. Canoes in ap- 

 proaching the Rio Negro generally prefer the 

 southern side on account of the slackness of 

 the current near the banks. Our progress, 

 however, was most tediously slow, for the 

 regular east wind had now entirely ceased, 

 and the vento de cimaor wind from up river 

 having taken its place, blew daily for a few 

 hours dead against us. The weather was 

 oppressively close, and every afternoon a, 

 squall arose, which, however, as it came, 

 from the right quarter and blew for an hour 

 or two, was very welcome. We made ac- 

 quaintance on this coast with 'a new insect 

 pest, the Pium, a minute fly, two thirds of a 

 line in length, which here commences its 

 reign, and continues henceforward as a ter- 

 rible scourge along the upper river, or Soli- 

 moens, to the end of the navigation on the 

 Amazons. It comes forth only by day, re- 

 lieving the mosquito at sunrise, with the 

 greatest punctuality, and occurs only near 

 the muddy shores of the stream, not one ever 

 being found in the shade of the forest. In 

 places where it is abundant, it accompanies 

 canoes in suck dense swarnid as to resemble 



