Chap. YII. FOREST OF SERPA. 311 



dito — had their holiday apart from the rest, and spent 

 the whole night singing and dancing to the music of a 

 long drum (gamlia) and the caracasha. The drum was 

 a hollow log, having one end covered with skin, and was 

 played by the performer sitting astride upon it and drum- 

 ming with his knuckles. The caracasha is a notched 

 bamboo tube, which produces a harsh rattling noise by 

 passing a hard stick over the notches. Nothing could 

 exceed in dreary monotony this music and the singing 

 and dancing, which were kept up with unflagging vigour 

 all night long. The Indians did not get up a dance ; for 

 the whites and mamelucos had monopolised all the pretty 

 coloured girls for their own ball, and the older squaws 

 preferred looking on to taking a part themselves. Some 

 of their husbands joined the negroes, and got drunk very 

 quickly. It was amusing to notice how voluble the 

 usually taciturn red-skins became under the influence 

 of liquor. The negroes and Indians excused their own 

 intemperance by saying the whites were getting drunk 

 at the other end of the town, which was quite true. 



The forest which encroaches on the ends of the 

 weed-grown streets jdelded me a large number of inter- 

 esting insects, some of which have been described in 

 the preceding chapter. The elevated land on which 

 Serpa is built appears to be a detached portion of the 

 terra firma ; behind, lies the gi-eat interior lake of 

 Saraca, to the banks of which there is a foot-road through 

 the forest, but I could not ascertain what was the 

 distance. Outlets from the lake enter the Amazons both 

 above and below the village. The woods were remarkably 

 dense, and the profoundest solitude reigned at the 



