THE DESCENT OF THE RIO GY-PARANA 257 



nearly three feet in length, and of a blood-red color with 

 blue-and-golden wings, that had been caught the previous 

 year; they were beautiful creatures, but had the curious 

 habit of spending the entire day squatting in a dark hole 

 under the floor of their owner's hut, coming out only when 

 hungry and at night, when they climbed to a perch above 

 the door to sleep. 



After dark our men indulged in a curious native dance 

 which I had never seen before in South America; they col- 

 lected a great heap of wood and soon after supper had a 

 roaring bonfire going; then they formed a circle, with one 

 man in the centre who began to sing in a high, strained 

 voice, and after each line the whole chorus answered with a 

 wail that sounded something like " oh-tee-oh-tee-ah." The 

 centre man bowed and hopped about on one foot in a most 

 ridiculous manner and made frequent sudden charges into 

 the surrounding company, and if he succeeded in knocking 

 one of them down that man took his place in the middle of 

 the ring. The whole performance looked very much like 

 an imitation of a cock-fight. Some of the onlookers had 

 rattles made of small calabashes full of pebbles stuck on a 

 short piece of bamboo, which they shook in rhythm with 

 the singing; they seemed perfectly insatiable of this form 

 of amusement, and the dancing and howling lasted far into 

 the night. 



Below Sao Feliz we found another small launch towing a 

 batelao, which in the course of a day took us to a camp 

 called Tabajara. We had not gone more than a few miles 

 the next morning when further progress was again barred 

 by rapids. After a short walk we crossed a branch of the 

 river in small dugouts and then started on a two-mile por- 

 tage through the flooded forest. Another launch was wait- 

 ing below the rapids, but within twenty minutes after 

 weighing anchor we again heard the roar of troubled waters 

 ahead of us; the river raced between high, rock-strewn 

 banks. In the distance we could see flecks of foam dotting 

 the surface, while a cloud of mist hung over the river; but 



