Aechidona. 193 



ments are short drawers, about six inches long, and little 

 ponchos, both of lienzo, dyed a dark purple with achote — 

 the red seeds of the bixa, which the cooks of Qnito use to 

 color their soups. All paint their bodies with the same 

 pigment. The women wear a frock reaching from the 

 waist to the knees ; it is nothing more than a yard or two 

 of lienzo wound around the body. The Archidonians are 

 the most Christianized of all the Napo Indians, but they 

 can not be called religious. Their rites (they can hardly 

 be said to have a creed) are the a, h, c, of Romanism, min- 

 gled with some strange notions — the relics of a lost pagan- 

 ism. They are very superstitious, and believe, as before 

 remarked, in the transmigration of souls. Maniacs they 

 think are possessed by an evil demon, and therefore are 

 treated with great cruelty. Negroes (of whom a few speci- 

 mens have come up the Napo from Brazil) are held to be 

 under the ban of the Almighty, and their color is ascribed 

 to the singeing which they got in the flames of hell. They 

 do not believe in disease ; but, like the Mundurucus on the 

 Tapajos, say that death is always caused by the sorceries 

 of an enemy. They usually bviry in the church or in the 

 tambo of the deceased. Celibacy and polygamy, homicide 

 and suicide, are rare. 



The only sign of industry in Archidona is the manufac- 

 ture of pita thread from the aloe. It is exported to Quito 

 on human backs. The inhabitants also collect copal at the 

 headwaters of the Ilondachi, and use it for illumination. 

 It can be bought in Archidona for three or four cents a 

 pound. The gum exudes from a lofty leguminous tree 

 having an oak-like bark. It resembles the anime of Mad- 

 agascar rather than the copal of India, which flows from 

 an entirely different tree. Guayusa, or " Napo tea," is an- 

 other and celebrated production of Archidona. It is the 

 large leaf of a tall shrub growing wild. An infusion of 



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