THE PURUPURUS. 75 



Indians in the Amazons district, lead a vagrant life similar to 

 that of the African Bushmen, but with this advantage — that 

 they have greater facility in procuring food, and live in a 

 country abounding in water. They have no fixed place of 

 abode, but sleep at night on a bundle of palm leaves, or stick 

 up a few leaves to make a shed if it rains, or sometimes with 

 bush-ropes construct a rude hammock, which, however, serves 

 only once. They eat all kinds of birds, and fish, roasted or 

 boiled in palm spathes, and all sorts of wild fruits. They have 

 little or no iron, and use the tusks of the wild pig to scrape 

 and form their bows and arrows, which they anoint with poison, 

 As the Bushmen do with their neighbours, they often attack 

 the houses of other Indians, situated in solitary places, and are 

 consequently equally detested by the surrounding tribes. 



On the banks of the Purus we find the Purupurus, who are 

 almost all afflicted with a cutaneous disease, consisting in the 

 body being spotted and blotched with white, brown, or nearly 

 black patches of irregular size and shape, and having a very 

 disagreeable appearance^ When young their skins are clear, 

 but as they grow up they invariably become more or less 

 spotted^ Tlieir houses are of the rudest construction, like 

 those of our gipsies, and so small as to be s€t up on the sandy 

 beaches and carried away in their canoes whenever they wish 

 to move. These canoes are likewise extremely primitive, 

 having a flat bottom and upright sides — a mere square box, 

 and quite unlike those of all other Indians. But what distin- 

 guishes them yet more from their neighbours is that they use 

 neither the blow-pipe nor bow and arsow, but have an 

 instrument called a ' palheta,' which is a piece of wood with a 

 projection at the end, to secure the base of the arrow, the 

 middle of which is held with the handle of the palheta in the 

 hand, and thus thrown as from a sHng ; they have a surprising 

 dexterity in the use of this weapon, and with it readily kill 

 game^ birds, and fish. They sleep in their houses^ on the sandy 

 beaches, making no hammocks nor clothing of any kind ; they 

 make no fire in theitr houses,, which are too small, but are kept 

 warm in the nrgkt by the number of persons in them. In the 

 wet season, when the banks of the river are all flooded, they 

 construct rafts of trunks of trees bound together with creepers, 

 and on them erect their huts, and live there till the waters fall 



