16 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



at other times every Wednesday and Saturday 

 morning. On Saturday evening nearly the whole 

 population assists at vespers the Litany to the 

 Virgin when the altars are decked with small 

 vases filled \A*ith flowers of Poinciana pulcherrima 

 (called Uaita-sissa, i.e. swimming flower), and at the 

 conclusion the patron saint, mounted on a stage, is 

 carried in procession round the streets, the Padre 

 and his people chanting as they march. After 

 each mass in the morning, and after the Ave Maria 

 in the evening, the chief officials of the town pre- 

 sent themselves to the Padre to receive his orders, 

 and he is fortunately not trammelled by the presence 

 of any interested white man under the name of 

 Gubernador, this office being filled by an intelligent 

 old Indian. 1 His rule is strict without being severe, 

 and I have nowhere seen the Indians so docile. 

 True, they are a rather sluggish race poor oars- 

 men and many of them have the skin disfigured 

 by black and red blotches from the leprous disease 

 called purupuru in Brazil. 



Outside the pueblo is the cemetery, surrounded 

 by an adobe wall, with gates under a porch. It is 

 usual to bury a man in his old canoe, cut up into 

 something like a coffin. The houses at Yurima- 

 guas, as in most other places on the rivers of 

 Maynas, are built of Cana brava a stout reed- 

 stuck close together in the ground and crossed by 

 others near the top and bottom. The doors are 

 made of the same material. 



Stages (called barbacoas), on which the inmates 



The officials nt Yurimaguas, in the order oi their rank, are Curaca, 

 .ui, Alferes Alcaide, 1'mcurudor, Regklor, Algun/il major, and t\\<> 

 Alguaziles minor in all nine. 



