138 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



becomes gradually poorer towards the interior. To the matfa, or forest zone of 

 the seaboard, succeeds the catinga, a more open or scrubby district, which merges 

 higher up in the agrede, where trees and shrubs become rarer, and consist of 

 species which shed their leaves in summer. Lastly comes the sertao of the arid 

 uplands, with poor pasturage, where stoc;k^breeding is the only possible industry, 

 except in the hrcjos or combes, marshy or fed by springs, forming so many oases in 

 the wilderness. 



In these dry inland regions the prevailing species are the gummiferous or 

 aromatic plants, whose foliage is deciduous in the summer season. The charac- 

 teristic palm is the carnaubaor wax-tree {copcniicia cerifem), one of those useful 

 plants which supply the natives with all their wants — food, drink, light, clothes, 

 and habitations. 



Formerly the fauna of Ceara and neighbouring districts was very rich, and at 

 the beginning of the seventeenth century the "ostrich " (rhea) still roamed the 

 coastlands opposite the island of Maranhao. In the limestone caves of the Mar- 

 anhao, Piauhy, and Ceara mountains, frequented by myriads of bats and vampires, 

 the remains have been found of huge extinct mammals, such as the mastodon 

 and the megatherium. Even Fernando de Noronha had its special fauna, repre- 

 sented by a large species of rat, birds, lizards, snakes, insects, and shells, showing 

 that the island had been separated from the mainland since the close of the 

 Mesozoic epoch. 



Inhabitants. 



One of the caves in the valley of the Quixeramobim affluent of the Jaguaribe 

 contained part of a human skull evidently of great antiquity. But it is uncertain 

 whether it belonged to an ancestor of any of the dominant races — Tupi, Tupi- 

 namba, Tupinambulx, that is " Brave Men," or Tabajara, " Village Lords"— with 

 whom the first French settlers in Maranhao entered into friendly relations during 

 the sixteenth century. Nor has any knowledge survived of those Indians who 

 formed alliances with the French immigrants, all having long been merged in 

 the general Brazilian population. 



Although the Guajajaras of the Pindare valley were exterminated by the gold- 

 hunters, some of this race are still met at the sources of the Upper Grajahu. 

 They are a vigorous people of Mongolie type, and the neighbouring "White 

 Indians " are remarkable for their light complexion. Farther east, on the 

 higher parts of the plateau, there still survive some fragments of distinct tribes, 

 such as the Akroas and Cayapos between the Tocantins and the Grajahu, in the 

 Serra da Cinta and the Serra do Negro. These natives, who appear to be of 

 Ges stock, approach the coastlands in West Maranhao, where they are known as 

 Timbiras and Gamellas, the latter term having reference to their " lip disk." 



On the Piauhy and Pernambuco borderlands still roam a few scattered bands 

 of the Pimenteiras, whose speech shows traces of Carib affinities or contact. In 

 the sixteenth century the Caethes of the Pernambuco district had already begun 

 to amalgamate with the Europeans, who were later again crossed with the slaves 



