732 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



air pervaded the sunless shade, 

 readth of the wooded valley, at the 



clamm 



The 



commencement, is probably more than half 

 a mile, and there is a tolerably clear view for 

 a considerable distance on each side of the 

 water-path through the irregular colonnade 

 of trees : other paths a-2?o, in this part, branch 

 off right and left from the principal road, 

 leading to the scattered houses of Indians on 

 the mainland. The dell contracts gradually 

 toward the head of the rivulet, and the forest 

 then becomes denser ; the water-path also 

 diminishes in width, and becomes more 

 winding on account of the closer growth of 

 the trees. The boughs of some are stretched 

 forth at no great height over one's head, and 

 are seen to be loaded with epiphytes ; one 

 iprchid I noticed particularly, on account of 

 its bright yellow flowers growing at the end 

 of flower-stems several feet long. Some of 

 the trunks, especially those of palms, close 

 beneath their crowns, were clothed with a 

 thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos 

 plants, mingled with ferns. Arrived at this 

 part, we were, in fact, in the heart of the 

 virgin forest. We heard no noises of ani- 

 mals in the trees, and saw only one bird, the 

 sky-blue chatterer, sitting alone on a high 

 branch. For some distance the lower vege- 

 tation was so dense that the road runs under 

 an arcade of foliage, the branches having 

 been cut away only sufficiently to admit of 

 the passage of a small canoe. These thickets 

 are formed chiefly of bamboos, whose slen- 

 der foliage and curving stems arrange them- 

 selves in elegant feathery bowers ; but other 

 social plants, slender green climbers with 

 tendrils so eager in aspiring to grasp the 

 higher boughs that they seem to be endowed 

 almost with animal energy, and certain low 

 trees having large elegantly- veined leaves, 

 contribute also to the jungly masses. Occa- 

 sionally we came upon an uprooted tree lying 

 across the path, its voluminous crown still 

 held by thick cables of sipo, connecting it 

 with standing trees : a wide circuit had to be 

 made in these cases, and it was sometimes 

 difficult to find the right path again. 



At length we arrived at our journey's end. 

 "We were then in a very dense and gloomy 

 part of the forest : we could see, however, 

 the dry land on both sides of the creek, and 

 to our right a small Runny opening appeared, 

 the landing-place to the native dwellings. 

 The water was deep close to the bank, and a 

 clean pathway ascended from the shady port 

 to the buildings, which were about a furlong 

 distant. My friend Cardozo v as godfather 

 to a grandchild of Pedro-uassu, whose 

 daughter had married an Indian settled in 

 Ega. He had sent word to the old man that 

 he intended t risit him : we were therefore 

 expected. 



As we landed, Pedro-uasau himself came 

 down to the port to receive us, our arrival 

 Laving been announced by the barking of 

 dogs. He was a tall and thin old in in, with 

 a serious but benignant expression of coun- 

 tenance, and a manner much freer from shy- 

 ness aud distrust than is usual with Indians. 



He was clad in a shirt of coarse cotton cloth, 

 dyed with murishi, and trousers of the same 

 material turned up to the knee. His features 

 were sharply delineated more so than in 

 any Indian face I had yet seen ; the lips thin 

 and the nose rather high and compressed. A 

 large, square, blue-black tattooed patch occu- 

 pied the middle of his face, which, as well 

 as the other exposed parts of his body, was 

 of a light reddish-tan color, instead of the 

 usual coppery-brown hue. He walked with 

 an upright, slow gait, and on reaching us 

 saluted Cardozo with the air of a man who 

 wished it to be understood that he was deal- 

 ing with an equal. My friend introduced me, 

 and I was welcomed in the same grave, cere- 

 monious manner. He seemed to have many 

 questions to ask ; but they were chiefly about 

 Senhora Felippa, Cardozo's Indian house- 

 keeper at Ega, and were purely compliment- 

 ary. This studied politeness is quite natural 

 to Indians of the advanced agricultural 

 tribes. The language used was Tupi : I 

 heard no other spoken all the day. It must 

 be borne in mind that Pedro-uassu had never 

 had much intercourse with whiles : he was, 

 although baptized, a, primitive Indian, who 

 had always lived in retirement, the cere- 

 mony of baptism having been gone through, 

 as it generally is by the aborigines, simply 

 from a wish to stand well with the whites. 



Arrived at the house, we were welcomed by 

 Pedro's wife, a thin, wrinkled, active old 

 squaw, tattooed in precisely the same way as 

 her husband. She had ulso sharp features, 

 but her manner was more cordial and quicker 

 than that of her husband ; she talked much 

 arid with great inflection of voice, while the 

 tones of the old man were rather drawling 

 and querulous. Her clothing was a long 

 petticoat of thick cotton cloth, and a very 

 short chemise, not reaching to her waist. I 

 was rather surprised to find the grounds 

 around the establishment in neater order than 

 in any sitio, even of civilized people, I had 

 yet seen on the Upper Amazons : the stock 

 of utensils and household goods of all sorts 

 was larger, and the evidences of regular in- 

 dustry and plenty more numerous than one 

 usually perceives in the farms of civilized 

 Indians and whites. The buildings were of 

 the same construction as thse of the hum- 

 bler settlers in all other parts of the country. 

 The family lived in a large, oblong, open 

 shed built under the shade of trees. Two 

 smaller buildings, detached from the shed 

 and having mud walls with low doorways, 

 contained apparently the sleeping apartments 

 of different members of the large household. 

 A small mill for grinding sugar-cane, having 

 two cylinders of hard notched wood ; wooden 

 troughs, and kettles for boiling the guardpa 

 (cane juice), to make treacle, stood under a 

 separate shed, and near it was a large in- 

 closed mud-house for poultry. There was 

 another hut and shed a short distance off, in- 

 habited by a family dependent on Pedro, and 

 a narrow pathway through the luxuriant 

 woiids led 'to more dwellings of the same* 

 kind. There was an abundance of f i u it-trees 



