126 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



Tushaua and his people. A few words served to ex- 

 plain my errand on the river ; he comprehended at once 

 why white men should admire and travel to collect the 

 beautiful birds and animals of his country, and neither 

 he nor his people spoke a single word about trading, or 

 gave us any trouble by coveting the things we had 

 brought. He related to me the events of the preced- 

 ing three days. The Pararauates were a tribe of in- 

 tractable savages with whom the Mundurucus have been 

 always at war. They had no fixed abode, and of course 

 made no plantations, but passed their lives like the wild 

 beasts, roaming through the forest, guided by the sun : 

 wherever they found themselves at night-time there 

 they slept, slinging their bast hammocks, which are 

 carried by the women, to the trees. They ranged over 

 the whole of the interior country, from the head waters 

 of the Itapacura (a branch of the Tapajos flowing from 

 the east, whose sources lie in about 7° south latitude) 

 to the banks of the Curua (about 3° south latitude), 

 and from the Mundurucu settlements on the Tapajos 

 (55° west longtitude) to the Pacajaz (50° west longi- 

 tude). They cross the streams which lie in their course 

 in bark canoes, which they make on reaching the water, 

 and cast away after landing on the opposite side. The 

 tribe is very numerous, but the different hordes obey 

 only their own chieftains. The Mundurucus of the 

 upper Tapajos have an expedition on foot against them 

 at the present time, and the Tushaua supposed that 

 the horde which had just been chased from his maloca 

 were fugitives from that direction. There were about 

 a hundred of them — including men, women, and chil- 



