222 The Andes and the Amazon. 



who devoured every thing, even the viscera. They sat up 

 late that night, around their camp-fire, cooking peccari 

 meat : part they parboiled in a pot, and some they roasted, 

 skewered on sticks which slanted over the flames ; the rest 

 they cured with smoke, for lack of salt. The meat, though 

 rank, is palatable, but not equal to macaw, which we served 

 up the next day.* 



We had now passed the mouth of the Aguarico, leaving 

 behind us the Christian Quit us and the peaceful Zaparos. 

 Henceforth the right bank of the l^apo is inhabited by the 

 Mazanes and Iquitos; while on the left are the wilder 

 Santa Marias, Anguteros, Oritos, and Orejones. The Ore- 

 jones, or " Big Ears," enlarge those appendages to such an 

 extent that they are said to lie down on one ear and cover 

 themselves with the other. This practice is now going out 

 of fashion. These Indians received their name, Orejones, 

 or Oregones, from the Spaniards, on account of this singu- 

 lar custom of inserting disks of wood in the ears to en- 

 large them ; the like practice prevailed among the tribes 

 on the Columbia River, Oregon. They trade in hammocks, 

 poisons, and provisions. The Anguteros, or Putumayos, 

 have a bad reputation. They are reported to have killed 

 and robbed sarsaparilla traders coming up stream. Nev- 

 ertheless, we kept watch only one night during the voyage, 

 though we always anchored to an island, and between 

 Coca and the Amazon we did not see twenty -five men. 

 Equally rare were the savage brutes^not a jaguar showed 

 himself, and only one anaconda. The anaconda, or water- 

 boa {Eunectes onurinus^)^ is larger and more formidable 



* The Uaupes on the Napo, according to Wallace, will not eat peccari 

 meat. " Meat putrifies in this climate (of the Tapajos) in less than twenty- 

 four hours, and salting is of no use unless the pieces are cut in thin slices and 

 dried immediately in the sun." — Bates. 



t The specific name was strangely given for its habit, when young, of dart- 

 ing upon mice. Anaconda is a Ceylonese word. 



