Chap. VI. TITCUNAS. 401 



ear for the first time, the impression cannot be resisted 

 that they are produced by a human voice. Some musical 

 boy must be gathering fruit in the thickets, and is 

 singing a few notes to cheer himself. The tones become 

 more fluty and plaintive ; they are now those of a flage- 

 olet, and notwithstanding the utter impossibility of the 

 thing, one is for the moment convinced that some- 

 body is playing that instrument. No bird is to be 

 seen, however closely the surrounding trees and bushes 

 may be scanned, and yet the voice seems to come from 

 the thicket close to one's ears. The ending of the song is 

 rather disappointing. It begins with a few very slow and 

 mellow notes, following each other like the commence- 

 ment of an air ; one listens expecting to hear a com- 

 plete strain, but an abrupt pause occurs, and then the 

 song breaks down, finishing with a number of clicking 

 unmusical sounds like a piping barrel-organ out of wind 

 and tune. I never heard the bird on the Lower Ama- 

 zons, and very rarely heard it even at Ega ; it is the 

 only songster which makes an impression on the natives, 

 who sometimes rest their paddles whilst travelling in 

 their small canoes along the shady by-streams, as if 

 struck by the mysterious sounds. 



The Tucuna Indians are a tribe resembling- much 

 the Shumanas, Passes, Juris, and Mauhes in their phy- 

 sical appearance and customs. They lead like those 

 tribes a settled agricultural life, each horde obeying a 

 chief of more or less influence, according to his energy 

 and ambition, and possessing its paje or medicine-man, 

 who fosters its superstitions ; but they are much more 



VOL. II. d D 



