226 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI". 



all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, 

 and so forth. Although the superstition doubtless 

 originated with the aborigines, yet I observed, in both 

 my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and un- 

 educated Brazilians who deposited anything. The 

 pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole 

 affair as a humbug ; but they were all civilised Ta- 

 puyos. 



On the 80th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel 

 called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburu. 

 The Macaco sends off branches towards the north-west 

 coast of Marajo. Whilst waiting for the tide I went 

 ashore in the montaria with Joa5 da Cunha. The 

 forest was gloomy and forbidding in the extreme, the 

 densely-packed trees producing a deep shade, under 

 which all was dark and cold. There was no animal 

 life visible — vertebrate, articulate, or molluscous. At 

 its commencement the Macaco is about half a mile 

 wide, and runs from S.S.W. to N.N.E. ; towards the 

 north it expands to a breadth of two or three miles. 

 It is merely a passage amongst a cluster of islands, 

 between which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of 

 the broad waters of the main Amazons. A brisk wind 

 carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early 

 in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the 

 entrance of the Uituquara, or the Wind-hole, which is 

 15 miles distant from the end of the Jaburu. This is 

 also a winding channel, S5 miles in length, threading 

 a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the 

 Macaco. 



On emerging from the Uituquara on the 2nd, we all 



