Chap. VI. AN INDIAN ABODE. 383 



and, taking me by the arm, led me to a mandioca shed, 

 making signs, as he could speak very little Tupi, that 

 he had something to show. I was not a little surprised 

 when, having mounted the girao, or stage of split palm- 

 stems, and taken down an object transfixed to a post, 

 he exhibited, with an air of great mystery, a large 

 chrysalis suspended from a leaf, which he placed care- 

 fully in my hands, saying, " Pana-pana curl " (Tupi : 

 butterfly by-and-by). Thus I found that the metamor- 

 phoses of insects were known to these savages ; but 

 being unable to talk with my new friend, I could not 

 ascertain what ideas such a phenomenon had given rise 

 to in his mind. The good fellow did not leave my side 

 during the remainder of our stay ; but, thinking appa- 

 rently that I had come here for information, he put 

 himself to considerable trouble to give me all he could. 

 He made a quantity of Hypadu powder, that I might 

 see the process ; going about the task with much action 

 and ceremony, as though he were a conjuror performing 

 some wonderful trick. 



We left these friendly people about four o'clock in 

 the afternoon, and in descending the umbrageous river, 

 stopped, about half-way down, at another house built in 

 one of the most charming situations I had yet seen in 

 this country. A clean, narrow, sandy pathway led from 

 the shady port to the house, through a tract of forest of 

 indescribable luxuriance. The buildings stood on an 

 eminence in the middle of a level cleared space ; the firm 

 sandy soil, smooth as a floor, forming a broad terrace 

 around them. The owner was a semi-civilised Indian, 

 named Manoel; a dull, taciturn fellow, who, together 



