252 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NH^E 



and were driven beyond the rapids. Then the men broke 

 into a low musical cry, sustained upon one note that quickly 

 changed to a swinging boat-song as the danger was thrust 

 behind. 



The passage took three hours to accomplish, and another 

 hour, threading a way through the rocks with which the 

 whole river was studded, brought us very tired to Voro, 

 where the people lined the banks and welcomed us with a 

 great cheer. 



Voro is a large village extending a long distance on the 

 left bank. The people are Kachi, who are very similar to 

 the Yakomas, and like them the young girls wear the long 

 black twine in their hair, often with the addition of jangling 

 bits of metal and bells fringing the ends. Their houses are 

 well built, many of them square, with mud-plastered walls, 

 evidently copied from the white man. It was here we saw 

 for the first time attempts at drawings and decorations 

 which the natives made not only on their persons but on 

 the walls of their houses also ; white paint was laid on in 

 streaks over their faces and bodies, and several small boys 

 had one eye surrounded and a line drawn to the ear like a 

 half pair of spectacles ; and we saw four old women sitting 

 on stools adorning their eyebrows and foreheads with streaks 

 of black paint which is got from the juice of a forest nut. 

 The paintings on the walls of their houses were even more 

 curious ; the man with the gun, constructed just like the 

 figures that children make with dots and lines, predominated. 

 The elephant was well represented with tusks nearly as long 

 as the trunk, and a tail with huge bristles ; there were croco- 

 diles also and — what was more remarkable — an ostrich, 



