Chap. YII. FAMILY OF SAVAGES. 305 



to be exceedingly small and numerous in all cases where 

 the filiation of races or species can be traced ; and 

 this circumstance may be held as confirming the truth 

 of the axiom, " Natura non facit saltum," which has 

 been impugned by some writers. 



About two miles beyond this sand-bank was the 

 miserable abode of a family of Mura Indians, the most 

 degraded tribe inhabiting the banks of the Amazons. 

 It was situated on a low terrace on the shores of a 

 pretty little bay at the commencement of the high 

 barreiros. With the exception of a cluster of bananas 

 there were no fruit-trees or plantation of any descrip- 

 tion near the house. We saw in the bay several large 

 alligators, with head and shoulders just reared above 

 the level of the water. The house was a mere hovel ; a 

 thatch of palm-leaves supported on a slender framework 

 of upright posts and rafters, bound with flexible lianas, 

 and the walls were partially plastered up with mud. A 

 low doorway led into the dark chamber ; the bare earth 

 floor was filthy in the extreme ; and in a damjD corner I 

 espied two large toads whose eyes glittered in the dark- 

 ness. The furniture consisted of a few low stools ; 

 there was no mat, and the hammock was a rudely woven 

 web of ragged strips of the inner bark of the Mongiiba 

 tree. Bows and arrows hung from the smoke-blackened 

 rafters. An ugly woman, clad in a coarse petticoat, and 

 holding a child astride across her hip, sat crouched 

 over a fire roasting the head of a large fish. Her hus- 

 band was occupied in notching pieces of bamboo for 

 arrow-heads. Both of them seemed rather disconcerted 

 at our sudden entrance ; we could get nothing but curt 



VOL. I. X 



