G12 GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES. 



have become decomposed, till only a black carbonaceous mass 

 is left. This is pounded, and mixed with an intoxicating 

 liquor, called caxiri, in vats made out of hollow trees. The 

 relatives having been invited, the whole company drink the 

 mixture, under the belief that the virtues of the deceased will 

 thus be transmitted to them. Some of them are cannibals, 

 and make war for the express purpose of procuring human 

 flesh. They smoke dry what they cannot at once consume, 

 thus preserving it a long time for food. They have no defi- 

 nite idea of a God; but they dread an evil spirit, whom they 

 believe delio-hts in afflictino^ them, and is the cause of death. 



Their houses hold a number of families ; sometimes a whole 

 tribe. They are upwards of 120 feet long, 80 feet broad, 

 and 30 feet high. The plan is a parallelogTam, with a semi- 

 circle at the further end. A passage twenty feet wide leads 

 from one end to the other ; while, on the sides, are partitions, 

 like the stalls in an old-fashioned public room of an inn, each 

 of which is inhabited by a separate family. The chief, or 

 tushaiia, resides at the semicircular end, where he has a private 

 entrance. The furniture consists of hammocks, with various 

 pots and cooking utensils made of clay, as well as baskets. 

 Their canoes are formed out of a single tree, hollowed and 

 forced open by cross pieces. Some ai-e forty feet in length. 

 The dead are nearly always buried in the houses : a large 

 house havino' sometimes one hundred OTaves in it. 



From the Rio Negro to the Andes there is a large region, 

 inhabited entirely by savages of whom little is known, exce})t 

 that they are mostly cannibals, and kill all their first-born 

 children. On the other side of the Amazon also is a still 

 larger tract of virgin forest, Avhere not a single civilized man 

 is to be found. 



