THE ATURES. 73 



ground, in order that the flesh remaining on the bone may be 

 scraped off with sharp stones. Several hordes in Gruiana still 

 observe this custom. Earthem vases, half-baked, are found 

 near the mapures or baskets ; they appear to contain the bones 

 of the same family. The largest of the vases, or funeral urns, 

 are three feet high and five feet and a half long. Their colour 

 is greenish-grey, and their oval form is sufficiently pleasing to 

 the eye, The handles are made in the shape of crocodiles or 

 serpents ; the edge is ornamented with meanders, labyrinths, and 

 straight lines variously combined.' When the reverence paid to 

 the dead thus called forth the first germs of art, there surely 

 must have been affectionate feelings of regret and sorrow, which 

 raised the Atures above the level of mere callous savages, and 

 add a melancholy interest to their extinction. 



The Indians of the Amazons valley appear to be much superior, 

 both physically and intellectually, to those of South Brazil and 

 of most other parts of South America. Their superb figures 

 generally equal the finest statues in beauty of outline ; their 

 broad chests exhibit a splendid series of convex undulations 

 without a hollow in any part of it. The sons of a delicious 

 climate, their bodies, invigorated by exercise, and enjoying from 

 infancy an unconstrained liberty of action, show the perfection 

 to which the human form may attain when circumstances favour 

 its development. Such is the number of their tribes that Mr. 

 Wallace enumerates no less than thirty along the bank of tlie 

 River Uaupes, one of the tributaries of the Eio Negro, having 

 almost all of them some peculiarities of language and custom, 

 but all going under the general name of Uaupes, and distinguish- 

 ing themselves as a body from the inhabitants of other rivers. 



All these tribes construct their dwellings after one plan, 

 which is peculiar to them. Their houses, formed in the shape 

 of a parallelogram with a semicircle at one end, are the abode 

 of numerous families, sometimes of a whole tribe. The roof is 

 supported on the columnar trunks of palm trees. In the centre 

 a clear opening is left, twenty feet wide, and on the sides are 

 little partitions of palm-leaf thatch, dividing off rooms for the 

 several families. These houses are built with much labour and 

 skill ; the main supports, beams, rafters, and other parts, are 

 straight, well-proportioned to the strength required, and bound 

 together with split creepers, in a manner that a sailor would 



