240 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



spoons, the Indians using their fingers. The old man 

 waited until we were all served before he himself com- 

 menced. At the end of the meal, one of the women 

 brought us water in a painted clay basin of Indian 

 manufacture, and a clean but coarse cotton napkin, that 

 we might wash our hands. 



The horde of Passes of which Pedro-uassu was 

 Tushaua or chieftain, was at this time reduced to a very 

 small number of individuals. The disease mentioned 

 in the last chapter had for several generations made 

 great havoc amongst them ; many, also, had entered the 

 service of whites at Ega, and, of late years, intermar- 

 riages with whites, half-castes, and civilised Indians 

 had been frequent. The old man bewailed the fate of 

 his race to Cardozo with tears in his eyes. " The people 

 of my nation," he said, " have always been good friends 

 to the Cariwas (whites), but before my grandchildren 

 are old like me the name of Passe will be forgotten." 

 In so far as the Passes have amalgamated with Euro- 

 pean immigrants or their descendants, and become civi- 

 lised Brazilian citizens, there can scarcely be ground for 

 lamenting their extinction as a nation ; but it fills one 

 with regret to learn how many die prematurely of a dis- 

 ease which seems to arise on their simply breathing the 

 same air as the whites. The original territory of the 

 tribe must have been of large extent, for Passes are said 

 to have been found by the early Portuguese colonists 

 on the Rio Negro ; an ancient settlement on that river, 

 Barcellos, having been peopled by them when it was 

 first established ; and they formed also part of the origi- 

 nal population of Fonte-boa on the Solimoens. Their 



