THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



709 



In September, I noticed that the water was 

 two or three inches higher in the afternoon 

 than it had been in the morning This phe- 

 nomenon was repeated the next day, and in 

 fact daily, until the creek became dry^wilh 

 the continued subsidence of the Cupuri, the 

 time of rising shifting a little from day to 

 day. I pointed out the circumstance to John 

 Arcaii, who had not noticed it before (it was 

 only his second year of residence in the 

 locality), but agreed with me that it must be 

 the "mare." Yes, the tide! the throb of 

 the great oceanic pulse felt in this remote 

 corner, 530 miles distant from the place where 

 it first strikes the body of fresh water at the 

 mouth of the Amazons. I hesitated at first 

 at this conclusion, but on reflecting that the 

 tide was known to be perceptible at Obydos, 

 more than 400 miles from the sea ; that at 

 high water in the dry season a large flood 

 from the Amazons enters the mouth of the 

 Tapajos, and that there is but a very small 

 difference of level between that point and 

 the Cupari, a fact shown by the absence of 

 current in the dry season ; I could have no 

 doubt that this conclusion was a correct one. 



The fact of the tide being felt 530 miles up 

 the Amazons, passing from the main stream 

 to one of its affluents 380 miles from its 

 mouth, and thence to a branch in the third 

 degree, is a proof of the extreme flatness of 

 the land which forms the lower part of the 

 Amazonian valley. This uniformity of level 

 is shown, also in the broad lake-like expanses 

 of water formed, near their mouths, by thf 

 principal affluents which cross the valley to 

 join the main river. 



August Zlst. John Aracu consented to ac- 

 company me to the falls, with one of his 

 men, to hunt and fish for me. One of my 

 objects was to obtain specimens of the hya- 

 cinthine macaw, whose range commences on 

 all the branch rivers of the Amazons which 

 flow from the south through the interior of 

 Brazil, with the first cataracts. We started 

 on the 19th, our direction on that day being 

 generally south-west. On the 20th our 

 course was southerly and southeasterly. 

 This morning (August fclst) we arrived at the 

 Indian settlement, the first house of which 

 lies about thirty-one miles above the sitio of 

 John Aracu. The river at this place is from 

 sixty to seventy yards wide, and runs in a 

 zigzag course between steep clayey banks, 

 twenty to fifty feet in height. The houses 

 of the Munduruciis. to the number of about 

 thirty , are scattered along the banks for a dis- 

 tance of six or seven miles. The owners ap- 

 pear to have chosen all the most picturesque 

 sites tracts of level ground at the foot of 

 wooded heights, or little havens with bits of 

 white sandy beach as if they had an appre- 

 ciation of natural beauty. Most of the d well- 

 iugs are conical huts, with walls of frame- 

 work filled in with mud and thatched with 

 palm-leaves, the broad eaves reaching half 

 way to the ground. Some arc quadrangular, 

 and do not differ in structure from those of 

 the semi-civilized settlers 5u other parts ; 

 others are optu siiecls oi 1 raaji;.^. A'HCJ-- 



seem generally to contain not more than one 

 or two families each. 



At the first house we learned that all the 

 fighting men had this morning returned from 

 a two days' pursuit of a wandering horde of 

 savages of the Pararauate tribe, who had 

 strayed this way from the interior lands uiui 

 robbed the plantations. A little farther on. 

 we came to the house of the Tushaua, or 

 chief, situated on the top of a high bank, 

 which we had to ascend by wooden fcteps. 

 There were four other houses in the neigh- 

 borhood, all filled with people. A flue old 

 fellow, with face, shoulders, and breast tat- 

 tooed all over in a cross-bar pattern, was thu 

 first strange object that caught my eye. 

 Most of the men lay lounging or sleeping \\\ 

 their hammocks. The women were em- 

 ployed in an adjoining shed making farinha, 

 many of them being naked, and rushing off 

 to the huts to slip on their petticoats whea 

 they caught sight of us. Our entrance 

 aroused liie Tushaua from a nap ; after rub- 

 bing his eyes he came forward and bade us 

 welcome with the most formal polietness, 

 and in very good Portuguese. He was a tall, 

 broad-shouldered, well-made man, appaiently 

 about thirty years of age, with handsome 

 regular features, not tattooed, and a quiet, 

 good-humored expression of countenance. 

 He had been several times to Santarem anil 

 once to Para, learning the Portuguese lan- 

 guage during these journeys. He was 

 dressed in shirt and trousers made of blue- 

 checked cotton cloth, and there was not the 

 slightest trace of the savage in his appearance 

 or demeanor. I was told that he had come 

 into the chieftainship by inheritance, and 

 that the Cupari horde of Mundurucds, over 

 which his fathers had ruled before him, was 

 formerly much more numerous, furnishing 

 800 bows in time of war. They could now 

 scarcely muster forty ; but the horde has no 

 longer a close political connection with the 

 main body of the tribe, which inhabits the 

 banks of the Tapajos, six days' journey from 

 the Cupari settlement. 



.. I spent the remainder of the day here, 

 sending Aracu and the men to fish, while I 

 amused myself with the Tushaua and his 

 people. A few words served to explain my 

 errand on the river ; he comprehended at 

 once why white men should admire, ami 

 travel to collect the beautiful birds and ani- 

 mals of his country, and neither he nor Lis 

 people spoke a single word about trading, or 

 gave us any trouble by coveting the things 

 we had brought. He related to me tho 

 events of the preceding three days. T,.e 

 iPararauates were a tribe of intractable sav- 

 ages, with whom the Mundurucus have been 

 always at war. They had no fixed abode, 

 and of course made no plantations, but- 

 passed their lives like the wild beasts, roam- 

 ing through the forest, guided by the sun : 

 wherever they found themselves at night- 

 time, there they slept, slinging their bast, 

 hammocks, which are carried by the women, 

 to the trees. They cross the streams whicli 

 lio 1:1 their course in bark cauoen, which they 



