THE NATURALIST ON TrIE .ilVEP AMAZONS. 



was ratner more play than work goinir on. ( 

 The people make a kind of holiday of .hese 

 occasions. Every fine night parties cf the 

 younger people assembled on the sands, and 

 dancing and games were carriea on for hours 

 together. But the requisite liveliness for 

 these sports was never got up without a good 

 deal of preliminary rum-drink ing. The girls 

 were so coy that the young men could not 

 get sufficient partners for the dances, with- 

 out first subscribing for a few flagons cf the 

 needful cashacja. The coldness of the shy 

 Indian and Mameluco maidens never failed 

 to give way after a little of this strong drink, 

 but it was astonishing what an immense deal 

 they could take of it in the course of an even- 

 ing. Coyness is not always a sign of inno- 

 cence in these people, for most of the half- 

 caste women on the tipper Amazons lead a 

 little career of looseness before they marry 

 and settle down for life ; and it is rather re- 

 markable that the men do not seem to object 

 much to their brides having had a child or 

 two by various fathers before marriage. The 

 women do not lose reputation unless they be- 

 come utterly depraved, but in that case they 

 are condemned pretty strongly by public 

 opinion. Depravity is, however, rare, for all 

 require more or less to be wooed before they 

 are won. I did not see (althougii I mixed 

 pretty freely with the young people) any 

 breach of propriety on the praias. The 

 merry-makings were carried on near the 

 ranchos, where the more staid citizens of 

 Ega, husbands with their wives and young 

 daughters, all smoking gravely out of long 

 pipes, sat in their hammocks and enjoyed the 

 fun. Toward midnight we often heard, in 

 the intervals between jokes and laughter, 

 the hoarse roar of jaguars prowling about the 

 jungle in the middle of the praia. There 

 were several guitar-players among the young 

 men, and one most persevering fiddler, so 

 there was no lack of music. 



The favorite sport was the Pira-purasseya, 

 or fish dance, one of the original games of 

 the Indians, though now probably a little 

 modified. The young men and women, sin- 

 gling together, formed a ring, leaving one of 

 their number in the middle, who represented 

 the fish. They then all marched round, In- 

 dian tile, the musicians mixed up with the 

 rest, singing a monotonous but rather pretty 

 chorus, the \\ords of which were invented 

 (under a certain form) by one of the party 

 who acted as leader. This finished, all joined 

 hands, and questions were put to the one in 

 the middle, asking what kind of fish he or 

 she might be. To these the individual has 

 to reply. The end of it all is that he makes 

 a rush at the ring, and if he succeeds iu es- 

 caping, the person who allowed him to do so 

 has to take his place ; the march and chorus 

 then lecommence, and so the game goes on 

 hour after hour. Tupi was the language 

 mostly used but sometimes Portuguese was 

 sung and spoken. The details of the dance 

 were often varied. Instead of the namts of 

 fishes being culled over by the person in th 

 middle, the name of some animal. Uwwer, or. 



other object was given to every fresh occu- 

 pier of the place. There was then good scope 

 for wit in the invention of nicknames, and 

 peals of laughter would often salute some 

 particularly good hit. Thus a very lanky 

 young man was called the Magoary, or the- 

 gray stork ; a moist, gray-eyed man, with a, 

 profile comically suggestive of a fish, was 

 christened Jaraki (a kind of fish), which was 

 considered quite a witty sally ; a little Mame- 

 luco girl, with light-colored eyes and brown 

 hair, got the gallant name of Rosa branca, 

 or the white rose ; a young fellow who had 

 recentlv singed his eyebrows by the explo- 

 sion of fireworks was dubbed Pedro queima- 

 dp (burnt Peter) ; in short, every one got a. 

 nickname, and each time the cognomen was 

 introduced into tb .horus as the circle- 

 marched round 



Our rancho waa a large, one, and was 

 erected in a line with the others, near the 

 edge of the sand-bank which sloped rather 

 abruptly to the water. During the first- 

 week the people were all, more o; less, 

 troubled by alligators. Some half-dozen full- 

 grown ones were in attendance off the praia, 

 floating about on the lazily flowing muddy 

 water. The diyness of the weather had in 

 creased since we had left Slwmuni, the cur- 

 rents had slackened, and the heat in the mid- 

 dle part of the day was almost insupportable. 

 But no one could descend to bathe without 

 being advanced upon by one or other of these 

 hungry monsters. There was much offal cast . 

 into the river, and this of course attracted 

 them to the place. One day 1 amused my- 

 self by taking a basketful of fragments of 

 meat beyond the line of ranchos, and draw- 

 ing the alligators toward me by feeding: 

 them. They behaved pretty much as dogs- 

 do when fed ; catching the bones I threw 

 them in their huge jaws, and coming nearer 

 and showing increased eagerness after every 

 morsel. The enormous gape of their mouths, 

 with their blood-red lining and long fringes.- 

 of teeth, and the uncouth shapes of their- 

 bodies, made a picture of unsurpassable ugli- 

 ness. I once or twice fired a heavy charge 

 of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable 

 part of their bodies, which is a small space 

 situated behind the eyes, but this had no 

 other effect than to make them give a hoarse 

 grunt and shake themselves ; they imme 

 -diately afterward turned to receive another 

 bone which I threw to them. 



Every day these visitors became bolder ; at 

 length they reached a pitch of impudence 

 that was quite intolerable. Cardozo had a 

 poodle dog named Carlito, which some grate- 

 ful -traveller whom he had befriended had 

 sent him from Rio Janeiro. He took great 

 pride in this dog, keeping it well sheared, 

 and preserving his coat as white aft soap and 

 water could make it. We slept iu our rancho 

 in hammocks slung between the outer posts ; 

 a large wood fire (fed with a kind of wood 

 abundant on the banks of the river, which 

 keeps alight all night) being made in the 

 middle, by the side of which slept Ca? lLo on 

 .a little mat. Mr Hl, one night I was awoke 



