Natural-History Collectors, 



6159 



fifteen yards wide. Our beasts were passed by lying a hide-rope 

 round their necks, and the boys on the opposite side hauling them 

 across: their attempts to swim were quite useless; the torrent rolled 

 them over and over like a cask, and they were dragged ashore almost 

 exhausted. 



" These are the best native houses I have seen anywhere ; the 

 rooms are up a ladder; the walls are composed of bamboo sticks, set 

 about an inch apart, to let air through ; the flooring is made of the 

 outsides of bamboo flattened : the roofs are very neat and nicely 

 rounded at the ends, and thatched with leaves; the principal fault 

 with these houses being their springing and shaking when any one 

 moves about. 



"The Shu-iberos paint themselves with red or black, or both, in 

 various ways, apparently according to fancy : sometimes it is done 

 like stencilling, patterns being made and laid on the cheeks or other 

 parts, and the colours rubbed through the openings; the chest, back, 

 arms and legs are sometimes also covered with paint. The women 

 are very small in size, and by no means smart in their dress, well 

 built or good looking. A dark cotton cloth, of native manufacture, 

 round the loins, nearly reaching to the knee, is their only garment: 

 they dye their hair and teeth vvith the same black as they paint their 

 skins with : their hair is long, tied into tails and ornamented with 

 beetles' wings and skins of gay-coloured birds at the end, such as 

 tanagers, blue creepers, aracaris and portions of toucans : sticks about 

 six or eight inches long are stuck through the lobes of their ears ; 

 lately they have introduced steel penholders for this purpose : beads 

 and seeds are used in abundance round the neck and over the breast 

 and shoulders, and a thick hair belt is tied round the waist. Some 

 few have a kind of scarf attached to the back of the head and hanging 

 down to the small of the back, made of bones, two inches and a half 

 long, quite white and said to belong to monkeys. 



" The fireflies are above an inch long and very brilliant : they are 

 called in Spanish ' Cucullu.' There is a frog with a very hoarse voice 

 which seems to say in his gruff' tones * Pretty fire fly fly.' 



I note the following, for fear it should be forgotten, and it is as well 

 Mr. Tomes should know it: amongst my Gualaquiza specimens 

 will be found one bat much larger than the rest: the Indian who 

 brought it said it attacks the mules and is called in their language 

 ' Jihimchama.* 



The Indians do not live in villages, but scattered all over the country, 

 a mile or more apart : their houses or sheds (for there are no second 



