xv 



FROM MANAOS TO TARAPOTO 



sleep, are made of the Tarapoto palm (Iriartea 

 ventricosa] split and flattened out into slabs. These 

 beds are raised about 3 feet from the ground. A 

 mat of one or more layers of Tururi (bark cloth) 

 is laid on the barbacoa, and the whole is enclosed 

 in a quadrilateral bag of Tocuyo (a coarse native 

 cotton cloth), supported on a framework of reeds, to 

 serve as a mosquito curtain. It effectually keeps out 

 insects but is very hot. Benches, both inside and 

 outside the houses, are made in the same way, but the 

 latter sometimes of an old canoe, the bottom form- 

 ing the seat and one side the back, like a settle. 



The industry of Yurimaguas, besides the salting 

 of fish, which is clone during summer, is chiefly the 

 fabrication of painted ollas and cuyas (pots and 

 calabashes), and numerous old calabash trees scat- 

 tered about the pueblo form one of its most 

 picturesque features. 



The Padre's house is much better than the rest 

 -built as in Brazil on a framework of rods filled in 

 with clay, and painted white, outside and in, with 

 gypsum. It contains several tables, the tops of 

 which are single slabs, one 4 feet across. The 

 rooms are ceiled with Cana brava, closely laid 

 across the beams and covered above with a thin 

 layer of clay. 



A peculiar utensil seen hen- and elsewhere in 

 Maynas is a large flat shallow dish, of the form of 

 the tin vessels used by gold-washers ; it is made ol 

 the sapopema of some light- wooded tree, ami I 

 have seen one above 5 feet in diameter. 

 used chiefly for crushing maize with a stone tor the 

 fabrication of chicha (native beer), but is 

 for grinding coffee, etc. 



VOL. II 



