Chap. III. FEAST OF FRUITS. 207 



practise it. The Indians of the Upper Amazons, like 

 those of the Lower river, mostly use fermented drinks 

 (called here Caysiima), made from mandioca cakes and 

 different kinds of fruit. 



I did not see much fruit about. A few old women in 

 one of the sheds were preparing and cooking porridge 

 of bananas in large earthenware kettles. It was now 

 near midday, the time when a little rest is taken before 

 resuming the orgy in the evening ; but a small party of 

 young men and women were keeping up the dance to 

 the accompaniment of drums made of hollow logs and 

 beaten with the hands. The men formed a curved line 

 on the outside, and the women a similar line on the 

 inside facing their partners. Each man had in his 

 right hand a long reed representing a javelin, and 

 rested his left on the shoulders of his neighbour. They 

 all moved, first to the right and then to the left, with 

 a slow step, singing a drawling monotonous verse, in a 

 language which I did not understand. The same figure 

 was repeated in the dreariest possible way for at least 

 half an hour, and in fact constituted the whole of the 

 dance. The assembled crowd included individuals of 

 most of the tribes living in the region around Ega ; but 

 the majority were Miranhas and Juris. They had no 

 common chief, an active middle-aged Juri, named Alex- 

 andro, in the employ of Senhor Chrysostomo of Ega, 

 seeming to have the principal management. This festi- 

 val of fruits was the only occasion in which the Indians 

 of the neighbourhood assembled together or exhibited any 

 traces of joint action. It declined in importance every 

 year, and will no doubt soon be discontinued altogether. 



