30 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



use of cistern water, which produces various morbid affec- 

 tions, especially worms and diarrhoeas. 



No where does man set a higher value on pure, cold, 

 pleasant water, than in those hot latitudes in which the sim- 

 ple element is the favourite means of quenching thirst. The 

 settlers are on this account in the habit of selecting and tast- 

 ing their drinking water, with as much care as a connoisseur 

 among us selects wine for his table. The Indians, however, 

 are very indifferent in the matter, and use the most impure 

 water, satisfying themselves with at most dropping in a little 

 of the expressed sap of fleshy leaves (such as those of the 

 Bromeliacese) or the juice of fruits (for instance of the Pu- 

 ruma or Cactus) to clarify it.* 



The water of many rivers is mild and of a pleasant taste, 

 and may be drank without fear, especially when it is drawn 

 from the middle of the stream, where the current is strongest. 

 The season of the year has also to be borne in mind. The 

 water of the Madeira and of the St. Francisco, is clear and 

 wholesome while the river is low, but when it is full, is said 

 to produce fever. The Jupura in the upper parts of its course 

 flows over beds of clay containing iron pyrites. In such places 

 the water is unwholesome, and the Indians attribute to it the 

 prevalence of dysentery and of dysenteric diarrhoeas. f 



The prepared drinks of the Indians are of various sorts, 

 either fermented or unfermented. Of the latter, the most 

 important one, whether we consider its intoxicating qualities, 

 or agreeable taste, which resembles that of beer made from 

 wheat, is the Chicha, which is prepared from the boiled 

 seeds of Indian corn. The preparation of this drink is 



* We recently noticed in a European Journal the common Indian mode of 

 clarifying water mechanically by alum, mentioned as a novelty. — TV. 



f As iron pyrites is not under ordinary circumstances decomposed by running 

 water, the unwholesomeness of the Jupura water is probably dependent on some 

 other cause ; we have heard well-educated medical men talk gravely of fishes 

 becoming poisonous from feeding on beds of copperas. Lately the fish of the river 

 Edin, have been poisoned wholesale, by peroxide of iron and sulphate of lime te 

 the extent of 3£ grs. to the pint of water, introduced from a coal pit.— 2V. 



