THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



aad been taught to recite with her compan- 

 ions in her native village : a few sentences 

 ^repeated operand over again with a rhythmic 

 accent, and relating to objects and incidents 

 ^connected with the wild life of her tribe. 

 ~V\ e had her baptized before she died, and 

 -when this latter event happened, in opposi- 

 tion to the wishes of the big people of Ega 

 1 insisted on burying her with the same 

 honors as a child of I he whites ; that is, as 

 an " aniinho" (little angel), according to the 

 pretty Roman Catholic" custom of the coun- 

 try. We had the corpse clothed in a robe of 

 "fine calico, crossed her hands on her breast 

 over a " palma" of flowers, and made also a 

 -crown of flowers for her head. Scores of 

 helpless children like our poor Oria die at 

 Ega, or on the road ; but generally not the 

 slightest care is taken of them during tneir 

 illness. They are the captives made during 

 the merciless raids of one section of the Mi- 

 lanha tribe on the territories of another, and 

 .-sold to the Ega traders. The villages of the 

 attacked hordes are surprised, and the men 

 and women killed or driven into the thickets 

 "without having time to save their children. 

 There appears to be no doubt that the Mi- 

 iranhas are cannibals, and therefore the pur- 

 chase of these captives probably saves them 

 if rom a worse fate. The demand for them at 

 Ega operates, however, as a direct cause of 

 4he supply, stimulating the unscrupulous 

 chiefs, who receive all the profits, to under- 

 take these murderous expeditions. 



It is remarkable how quickly the savages 

 >of the various nations, which each have their 

 <ovrn, to all appearance, widely different lan- 

 gnage, learn Tupi on their arrival at Ega, 

 where it is the common idiom. This per- 

 haps may be attributed chiefly to the gram 

 matical forms of all the Indian tongues being 

 the same, although the words are different. 

 As far as I could learn, the feature is com- 

 Jinan to all, of placing the preposition after 

 the noun, making it, in fact, a post- position, 

 thus : " He is come the village from /" " Go 

 him with, the plantation to," and so forth. 

 The ideas to be expressed in their limited 

 sphere of life and thought are few ; conse- 

 quently the stock of words is extremely 

 .small ; besides, all Indians have the same 

 -way of thinking, and the same objects to talk 

 .about ; these circumstances also contribute to 

 the ease wiih which they learn each other's 

 language. Hordes of the same tribe living 

 on the same branch rivers, speak mutually 

 unintelligible languages ; this happens with 

 the Miranhas on the Japura, and with the 

 'Collinas on the Jurua ; while Tupi is spoken 

 with little corruption along the banks of the 

 snata Amazons for a distance of 2500 miles. 

 The purity of Tupi is kept up by frequent 

 'Communication among the natives, from one 

 <end to the other of the main river ; how 

 complete and long-continued must betheiso- 

 .lation in which the small groups of savages 

 Jiave lived in other parts, t,o have caused so 

 complete a segregation of dialects ! It is 

 probable that the strange inflexibility of the 

 indiau organization, both bodily and mental 



is owing to the isolation in which each small 

 tribe has lived, and to tho narrow round of 

 life and thought, and close intermarriages 

 for countless generations, which are the 

 necessary results. Their fecundity is of a 

 low degree, for it is very rare to find an In- 

 dian family having so many as four children, 

 and we have seen how great is their liability 

 to sickness and death on removal from place 

 to place. 



I have already remarked on the different 

 way in which the climate of this equatorial 

 region affects Indians and negroes. No one 

 could live long among the Indians of the 

 Upper Amazons without being struck with 

 their constitutional dislike to the heat. Euro- 

 peans certainly withstand the high tempera- 

 ture better than the original inhabitants of 

 the country ; I always found I could myself 

 bear exposure to the sun or unusually hot 

 weather quite as well as the Indians, although 

 not well fitted by nature for a hot climate 

 Their skin is always hot to the touch, and 

 they perspire little. No Indian resident of 

 Ega can be induced to stay in the village 

 (where the heat is felt more than in the for- 

 est or on the river) for many days together. 

 They bathe many times a day, but do not 

 plunge in the water, taking merely a trite-bath, 

 as dogs may be seen doing in hot climates, to 

 cool the lower parts of the body. The wom- 

 en and children, who often remain at home, 

 while the men are out for many days together 

 fishing, generally find some excuse for troop- 

 ing irtf to the shade of the forest in the hot 

 hours of the afternoon. They are restless 

 and discontented in fine dry weather, but 

 cheerful in cool days, when the rain is pour- 

 ing down on their naked backs. When suf- 

 fering under fever, nothing but strict watch- 

 ing can prevent them from going down to 

 bathe in the river, or eating immoderate 

 quantities of juicy fruits, although these in- 

 dulgences are frequently the cause of death. 

 They are very subject to disorders of the 

 liver, dysentery, and other diseases of hot 

 climates ; and when any epidemic is about 

 they fall ill quicker, and suffer more than 

 negroes or even whites. How different all 

 this is with the negro, the true child of tropi- 

 cal climes ! The impression gradually foiced 

 itself on my mind that the red Indian lives 

 as a stranger or immigrant in these hot re- 

 gions, and that his constitution was not 

 originally adapted, and has not since become 

 perfectly adapted, to the climate. 



The Indian element is very prominent in 

 the amusements of the Ega people. All the 

 Roman Catholic holidays are kept up with 

 great spirit, rude Indian sports being min- 

 gled with the ceremonies introduced by the 

 Portuguese. Besides these, the aborigines, 

 celebrate their own ruder festivals ; the peo- 

 ple of different tribes combining ; for, in 

 most of their features, the merry-makings 

 were originally alike in all the tribes. The 

 Indian idea of a holiday is bonfires, proces- 

 sions, masquerHding, especially the mimicry 

 of different kinds of animals, plenty of con- 

 fused diumming and fifiug, monotonous 



