378 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



over the country, and are connected together by no 

 other ties than a common name and the tradition of 

 general enmity towards the hordes bearing the name of 

 the other nation. Moreover, hordes belonging to the 

 same tribe or nation sometimes quarrel with each other. 

 These petty wars originate in this fashion : a member of 

 a family falls ill, and his or her relations, or the rest of 

 the horde, get hold of the idea that the Paje of a neigh- 

 bouring horde has caused the illness by witchcraft ; all 

 then assemble for a grand drinking-bout, during which 

 they excite each other by reciting their wrongs. The 

 armed men meet on the following day, and march by 

 intricate paths or circuitous streams, so as to take their 

 enemies by surprise, and then pounce upon them with 

 loud shouts, killing all they can, and burning their huts 



to the ground. 

 i 



November 30th. — I left Tunantins in a trading 

 schooner of eighty tons burthen belonging to Senhor 

 Batalha, a tradesman of Ega, which had been out all 

 the summer collecting produce, and was commanded 

 by a friend of mine, a young Paraense, named Fran- 

 cisco Raiol. We arrived, on the 3rd of December, at 

 the mouth of the Jutahi, a considerable stream about 

 half a mile broad, and flowing with a very sluggish 

 current. This is one of a series of six rivers, from 400 

 to 1000 miles in length, which flow from the south- 

 west through unknown lands lying between Bolivia and 

 the "Upper Amazons, and enter this latter river between 

 the Madeira and the Ucayali. The sources of none 

 of them are known. The longest of the six is the 



