104 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



sidered quite a wonder as being a bird usually so dif- 

 ficult of domestication. I do not know what arts the 

 old woman used : Captain Antonio said she fed it with 

 her saliva. The chief reason why almost all animals 

 become so wonderfully tame in the houses of the 

 natives is, I believe, their being treated with uniform 

 gentleness, and allowed to run at large about the rooms. 

 Our Maracana used to accompany us sometimes in our 

 rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. One 

 day, in the middle of a long forest road, it was missed, 

 having clung probably to an overhanging bough and 

 escaped into the thickets without the boy perceiving it. 

 Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same 

 path, a voice greeted- us in a colloquial tone as we 

 passed " Maracana ! " We looked about for some time, 

 but could not see anything until the word was repeated 

 with emphasis " Maracana-a ! " when we espied the 

 little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. He 

 came down and delivered himself up evidently as much 

 rejoiced at the meeting as we were. 



After I had obtained the two men promised, stout 

 young Indians, 17 or 18 years of age, one named 

 Ricardo and the other Alberto, I paid a second visit to 

 the western side of the river in my own canoe ; being 

 determined, if possible, to obtain specimens of the White 

 Cebus. We crossed over first to the mission village, 

 Santa Cruz. It consists of 30 or 40 wretched-looking 

 mud huts, closely built together in three straight ugly 

 rows on a high gravelly bank. The place was deserted 

 with the exception of two or three old men and women 

 and a few children. The missionary, Fre Isidro, an 



