Rory] GAMES, SPORTS, AND AMUSEMENTS 477 
590. Arrived at the house where the drink is, the parishara dancers 
find that their hosts have already begun the tukui or humming-bird 
dance. The humming birds move to meet them, and two sets of 
dancers join and enter the house, forming an inner and an outer 
circle, the guests being inside. The tukwi gives place to the pari- 
shara song, and after a while the tukui dancers may withdraw. 
The parishara dancers carry kawa or rattle strings (sec. 574), made 
of the seed cases of the kawa, fixed upon a plait of cotton sus- 
pended from a stick. This stick they hold in the right hand, sloping 
it outward to the shoulder, and jerk it at intervals, producing a sound 
which resembles the noise made by a species of cicad other than the 
“6 o’clock” bee. They carry in the left hand long, hollow cylinders 
through which they will now and again blow, producing a sound 
something like that of a bassoon. The cylinder may carry at its ex- 
tremity the carved wooden effigies of some particular animal or bird 
(sec. 559). Several of such wooden effigies of animals, birds, and fish 
are recorded from the upper Rio Negro (IKKG, m, 154, 163-165). On 
occasion, however, the tubes may be used and not the special dresses. 
Now the parishara dance and song proceed. The former is nothing 
more than a regular stepping and stamping around in a circle, re- 
versing the direction from time to time. The women join in the dance, 
resting their right hands upon the men’s left shoulders. At intervals 
the master of the ceremonies gives the sign for the drink to be handed 
around, and the women distribute it in calabashes, but he must keep 
his wits about him, for even some of the women may be too drunk to 
attend to their duties. At the end of each verse of the song, which is 
sung in a droning voice, the verse being repeated from 20 to 30 times 
to form one song stanza, there is the blowing of flutes and whistles, a 
sort of cheering, cries of hoi, hoi, hoi . . . and the repetition of the 
name parishara. When I can assure the reader that I have watched 
and taken part in a parishara dance in the Patamona country for 
upward of 19 hours at a stretch the number of times that each verse 
is repeated will doubtless be appreciated. The words of the parishara 
song that I listened to were as follows: 
As the visitors come up to the house, they sing: 
i. Komama kinokinope apdta  seporiné. 
Late afternoon Bunia your place crowding. 
As they enter the house, they continue: 
ii. Kamuraka monata. 
seissor-tail bird’s door. 
iii. Werper makai-iporo uipti. 
Hill Mountain Icome from. 
iy. Uipti uipti yamotariai tuwénase 
Ieome Icome up-and down gulley 
Kurekeru nesertiase. 
flute, trumpet, singing. 
v. Kurekeru yaper kabe wiyepuiw4. 
flute clean up Wwe are coming. 
