THE ROOF OF LEAVES. 145 



beyond the gunwale. Unfortunately, the roof of leaves, 

 that covered this lattice- work, was so low that they were 

 obliged to lie down, without seeing anything, or, if 

 seated, to sit nearly double. The necessity of carrying 

 the canoe across the rapids, and even from one river to 

 another, and the fear of giving too much hold to the 

 wind, by making the roof higher, rendered this construc- 

 tion necessary. The roof was intended to cover four 

 persons, lying on the deck or lattice-work of brush-wood ; 

 but their legs reached far beyond it, and when it rained 

 half their bodies were wet. Their couches consisted of 

 ox-hides or tiger-skins, spread upon branches of trees, 

 which were painfully felt through so thin a covering. 

 The fore part of the boat was filled with Indian rowers, 

 furnished with paddles, three feet long, in the form of 

 spoons. They were all naked, seated two by two, and 

 they kept time in rowing with a surprising uniformity, 

 singing songs of a sad and monotonous character. The 

 small cages containing the birds and the monkeys of 

 the travellers, the number of which increased as they 

 advanced, were hung, some to the roof and others to the 

 bow of the boat. This was their travelling menagerie. 

 Every night, when they established their watch, their 

 collection of animals and instruments occupied the centre ; 

 around these were placed first their hammocks, then the 

 hammocks of the Indians ; and on the outside were the 

 fires which were thought indispensable against the attacks 

 of the jaguar. 



In a canoe not three feet wide, and so encumbered, 

 there remained no other place for the dried plants, 

 trunks, sextants, dipping-needles, and the meteorological 

 instruments, than the space below the lattice-work of 



