322 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. VIL 



out, are placed on a mat and rolled up into the re- 

 quired shape. This is done by the women and children, 

 who also manage the planting, weeding, and gathering 

 of the tobacco. The process of tightening the rolls is a 

 long and heavy task, and can be done only by men. 

 The cords used for this purpose are of very great 

 strength. They are made of the inner bark of a pecu- 

 liar light-wooded and slender tree, called Uaissima, 

 which yields, when beaten out, a great quantity of 

 most beautiful silky fibre, many feet in length. I think 

 this might be turned to some use by English manufac- 

 turers, if they could obtain it in large quantity. The 

 tree is abundant on light soils on the southern side of 

 the Lower Amazons, and grows very rapidly. When 

 the rolls are sufficiently well pressed they are bound 

 round with narrow thongs of remarkable toughness, cut 

 from the bark of. the climbing Jacitara palm tree 

 (Desmoncus macracanthus), and are then ready for sale 

 or use. 



A narrow channel runs close by this house, which 

 communicates at a distance of six hours' journey (about 

 eighteen miles) with the Urubu, a large and almost un- 

 known river, flowing through the interior of Guiana. 

 Our host told me the Urubu presented an expanse of 

 clear dark water, in some places a league in width, and 

 was surrounded by an undulating country, partly forest 

 and partly campo. Its banks are fringed with white 

 sandy beaches, and peopled only by a few families of 

 Mura savages. The family now in his employ, and who 

 were living gipsy fashion, the only way they can be in- 

 duced to live, under a wretched shed on his grounds, 



