260 THE ANCIENT INDIAN POTTERY OF MARAJO, BRAZIL. 
called Os Camutins.* These last he supposed to be of Tupi 
origin. The same author says that the Tupis sometimes buried 
their dead in vases which were rude and unornamented. The 
Omaguas still use this mode of interment, but the vases are buried 
in the huts. I was informed at Rio das Contas, in the southern 
part of the Province of Bahia, that the Patachos bury their dead 
‘in earthen jars. 
I do not know that any systematic examination has ever been 
made of any of the ancient Amazonian burial places. Last sum- 
mer, while at Pará, Senhor Ferreira Penna, late Provincial Sec- 
retary, and the author of a very excellent little book t on the west- 
ern part of the Province, called my attention to the fact of the 
existence of the Marajó pottery at Lake Arary. Being unable to 
visit the locality in person, I sent one of my assistants, Mr. W. 
S. Barnard, to examine it. Mr. Barnard reports that Indian burial 
stations are quite numerous in the centre of the island. The prin- 
cipal ones are, however, the Island of Camuti in the Rio Anajas, 
near the Fazenda de Sao Luiz, and probably the same called Os 
Camutins, by Von Martius; another near the Fazenda da Forta- 
leza, consisting of a mound from eight to twelve feet high, built 
up on the flat campos, forming an island during the annual over- 
flow, and full of vases; another on the campo near Lake Guajará, 
which Mr. Barnard thought might contain four or five acres; but 
the most interesting appears to be the Ilha das Pacovast in Lake 
Arary, which was visited by my assistant. 
The Ilha das Pacovas lies close to the western side of the lake, 
opposite the beginning of the Rio Arary, which forms the outlet 
to the lagoa, and just to the south of the mouth of the Iga- 
rapé das Armas. It is oblong in shape, about ninety paces in 
length from north to south, and about forty paces in width. In 
the month of November, when the water was low, it was somewhat 
over ten feet in height above the level of the lake. It is for the 
most part covered with large forest trees. Situated at the northern 
end of the island, and separated from it by a narrow channel, is a 
little crescent-shaped islet apparently built on as an addition, 
the mae is the Tupi brs: for pot. The Portuguese ae fol it Camutim. Treated 
asa P rtuguese word, the plural would, in this case, be Ci 
faites, “ A Regiaio Occidental da Provincia do Pará” a rr published by the gov- 
ernmen 
t rora Portuguese form for bir — abanana. The island takes its name 
from the banana trees growing upo: 
N sia aaa Si ea a 
