"710 



THE NATURALIST ON T//E RIVEK AMAZONS. 



.make on reaching the water, and cast away 

 -after lauding on the opposite side. The tribe 

 is very numerous, but the different hordes 

 obey only their owu chieftains. The Mun- 

 durucus of the upper Tapajns have au expe- 

 'difion on foot against them at the present 



tried to skip. The pictures of the elephant, 

 camels, orang-otangs, and tigeis seemed 

 most to astonish them ; but they were inter- 

 ested in almost everything, down even to 

 the shells and insects. They recognized the, 

 portraits of the most striking birds and mam* 



f-- - c*i JUtou bUV, IAL tVL IUV L?IVOWUV UVI VftCMvO t/A &UV 111 V^ Ob O I 1 1 I*. I 11 i I'UtAO ClilU lliUlll* 



ushaua supposed that * he Dials which aie found in their own country ; 



K 1 _ 1. ' _t. l_- ^ 1 ^ 1- I li! i i ^ ' i . 1 



horde which ha-l just been chased hum his 

 maloca were 1'ugi lives from that direction. 

 There were ab ut a hundred of them in- 

 Deluding men, women, and children. Before 

 they were discoverer! the hungry savages had 

 uprooted all the macashtira, sweet potatoes, 

 nd sugar-cane, whicn tlie industrious Mun- 

 durucus had planted for the season, on the 

 east side of the river. As soon as they were 

 teen they made off, but the Tushaua quickly 

 got together all the young men of the settle- 

 ment, about thirty in number, who armed 

 themselves with guns, bows and arrows, and 

 Javelins, and started in pursuit. They 

 tracked them, as before related, for two days 

 through the forest, but lost their traces on 

 4he further bank of the'Cuparitinga, a branch 

 stream flowing from the north-east, 

 puisuers thought, at one lime, they 



the jaguar, howling monkeys, parrots, tro- 

 gons, i7ml toucans. The elephant was set tied 

 to be a large kind of tapir ; but they made 

 but few remarks, and those in the Mundu- 

 rucu language, of which I understood only 

 two or three words. Their way of express- 

 ing sui prise was a clicking sound made with 

 the teeth, s'milar to the one we ourselves 

 use, or a subdued exclamation, Hm ! hm ! 

 Before I finished, from fifty to sixty had as- 

 sembled ; there was no pushing or rudeness, 

 the grown-up women letting the young girls 

 and children stand before them, and all be- 

 haved in the most quiet and orderly manner 

 possible. 



The Mundurucus are perhaps the most 

 numerous and formidable tribe of Indians 

 The now surviving in the Amazons region. They 

 were nhabit the shores of the Tapajos (chiefly the 



close upon them, having fcund the inextin- right bank), from 3 to 7 south latitude, and 

 /guished fire of their last encampment. The the interior of the country between that part 

 footmarks cf the chief could be distinguished cf the river and the Madeira. On the Tapa- 

 from the rest by their great size and the jos alone they can muster, I was told, 2000 

 length of the stride. A small necklace made fighting men; the total population of the 



tribe may be about 20,000. They were not 

 heard of until about ninety years ago, whtu 

 they made war on the Portuguese settle- 



of scarlet beans was the only trophy of the 



'expedition, and this the Tushaua gave to me. 



I saw very little of the other male Indians, 



-as they were asleep in their huts all the after- 



men! s, their hosts crossing the interior of 



-noon. There were two othtr tattooed men the country eastward of the Tapajos, and al- 

 lying under an open shed, besides the old man Stacking the establishments of the wliites in 

 already mentioned. One of them piet-ented the province of Matanham. The Portuguese 

 # strange appearance. Laving a semicircular made peace with them in the beginning of 



the present n ury, the event being brought 



of the nose and mouth ; about by the common c^useof quarrel enter- 

 his back and bicast, and tained by the two peoples against the hated 

 Muras. They have ever since been firm 



black patch in the middle of his face, cover- 

 ing the bottom 

 ^crossed lines on 



stripes down his aims and legs. It is singu- 

 lar that the graceful curved patterns ustci by friends of the whites. It is remarkable how 

 the South Sea Islanders are quite unknown faithfully this friendly feeling ^as been 

 aimong the Brazilian red men ; they being all bailed 

 4attooed either in simple lines or patches. 

 'The nearest approach to elegance of design 

 which I saw was among the Tucunn* of the famih*, or even an individual of the tribe, he 



down among the Muudurucus, and 

 spread to the remotest of the scattered 

 hordes. Wherever a white man meets a 



Upper Amazons, some of whem have a 

 scroll-like mark en each cheek, piocoing They are 



The 



irom the corner of the meuih. The ts.ste, 

 -us far as form is concerned, of the Ameiuan 

 Indian would seem to be far less it-fined 

 ifhan that of the Tahitian andNewZealander. 

 To amuse the Tushaua, I fciched ficm the 

 canoe the two volumes cf Knight's " Pic- 

 torial Museum of Animated Nalme." The 

 engravings quite took his fancy, and he 

 called his wives, of whom, as I afieiward 

 learned from Aracu, he had thiee Q< i< ui. to 

 look at them ; one of them was a lu.mi 

 girl, decorated with necklace and bi v 

 ( f blue beads. In a short time fill 

 their work, and I then had a crowd ) \ 

 en and children around me, who all o^| > 

 unusual curiosity for Indians, li vu; 

 light task to go through the wh'ok c 

 illustrations, but they would not allow 



miss a pae, making me turn lack \vMc** X ei 



is aim ist sare to be reminded of thisstlliance. 

 the injst warlike of the Brazilian 

 tribes, au 1 are considered also the mo^t set- 

 tle! au;i in lustriaus ; they are not, haweirer, 

 supeii M in ih is latter respect to the Juris and 

 Passes, <)ii the Upper Amazons, or the Uapes 

 Indians n -ar the head waters of the Rij 

 Ng' >. They make very large planta-iona 

 of in in 1 1 )Cu, and sell the sivplu* produce, 

 will- i tin mats on I he Tapajos to from 300i) 

 it) 50. M) baskets (60 H. each) annually, to 

 trader-i who aseen-1 ttio iver from 8'iutarona 

 me | between the mouths of August aud January. 

 ins'iTlie also gather large quantities of Saisi- 

 ; it ' parilht, imlia-rubber, and Touka beans, in 

 in- the fot e.sts. The trade. s, rm their arrival at' 

 \ ed the C i.npinas (the scantily wooded region in. 

 Qoijuabite 1 t the rn^ain body of Mundurueiii 

 lie * be/on 1 the eararioU) have first to distribute 

 i to their vvues cfie.ip ctt;u cloths, iron hatch- 



- M ill Wiiros, and ca.shaga r 



