176 TRAVELS* ON THE RIO NEGRO. [March, 



monotonous dances, accompanied by strange figures and con- 

 tortions. The young girls generally came neatly dressed, their 

 glossy hair beautifully plaited, and with gay ribbons or flowers 

 to set it off. The moment the xirac is finished the party 

 breaks up, as they do not seem to think it possible to dance 

 without it : sometimes they make enough to last two or three 

 days. Their dances appear quite national, but they have appa- 

 rently left off paint, as I saw very little used. 



The language spoken by these people is called the Maniva 

 or Baniwa, but it differs considerably from the Baniwa of the 

 Rio Negro, and is not so harsh and guttural. At Tomo and 

 Marda another language is spoken, quite distinct from this, but 

 still called the Baniwa ; a little further down, at Sao Carlos, 

 the Barre' is used ; so that almost every village has its language. 

 Here the men and old women all speak Spanish tolerably, 

 there having formerly been priests living at the Convento, who 

 instructed them. The younger women and the boys and girls, 

 not having had this advantage, speak only the native tongue ; 

 but many of them can understand a little Spanish. I found 

 considerable difficulty in making myself intelligible here. The 

 white men, who are called "rationales" (rationals), could 

 understand my mixed Portuguese and Spanish very well, but 

 the Indians, knowing but little Spanish themselves, cannot of 

 course comprehend any deviations from the ordinary method 

 of speaking. I found it necessary, therefore, to keep my Spanish 

 by itself, as they could better understand a little and good, 

 than a great deal of explanation in the mixed tongue. 



Some of my dull and dreary evenings I occupied in writing 

 a description of the village and its inhabitants, in what may 

 probably be very dreary blank verse ; but as it shows my ideas 

 and thoughts at the time, I may as well give it the reader in 

 place of the more sober and matter-of-fact view of the matter I 

 should probably take now. I give it as I wrote it, in a state of 

 excited indignation against civilised life in general, got up to 

 relieve the monotony of my situation, and not altogether as my 

 views when writing in London in 1853. 



A DESCRIPTION OF 



"'Tis where the streams divide, to swell the floodt 

 Of the two mighty rivers of our globe ; 

 Where gushing brooklets in their narrow beds 



