THE PURUS. 



279 



and laborious in the dry season, which is from May to October. 

 The ascent of the Mucuin takes thirty-five days to arrive at the 

 " Furo," which connects it with the Madeira ; and the navigation of the 

 Furo takes ten more. I did not understand from Senhor Seraphim that 

 there were any whites on the banks of the Mucuin ; but he told me 

 there were broad-tailed sheep there — such as are called in Brazil sheep 

 of five quarters, on account of the weight and value of the tail. If 

 this be true, I suspect that the Mucuin runs through a portion of the 

 great department of Beni, belonging to Bolivia ; that it communicates 

 with the Madeira by means of the river Beni ; and that these sheep 

 have either been stolen by the Indians, or have strayed from whites 

 who live about the little town of Cavanas, situated on a tributary of 

 the Beni. 



Four years ago Senhor Seraphim, in one of his voyages, encountered 

 the wreck of a boat stranded on a beach of the Purus. He knew that 

 it was not a Brazilian boat, on account of its construction, and from the 

 fact that he at that time was the only trader on the river. He also 

 knew that it was not an Indian's boat, from the iron ring in its bow ; 

 and the only conclusion that he could come to was that the boat had 

 broken adrift from civilized people above, and been wrecked and 

 broken in passing the rapids. The Indians who were with Seraphim 

 told him that ten days higher up (though the river was broken by 

 caxoeiras) would reach white people, who rode on horseback, and had 

 flocks and herds. Seraphim was then probably about six hundred miles 

 from the mouth of the Purus. His last voyage occupied eighteen 

 months, and he brought down two hundred and twenty-five pots of 

 copaiba, and one hundred and fifty arrobas of sarsaparilla. 



The catauxis and the Indians generally of the Purus build their 

 houses exactly as 1 have described those of the Yaguas. There is rarely 

 ever more than one house at a settlement ; it is called a ?nalocca, and 

 ten or fifteen families reside in it. Children are contracted in marriage 

 at birth and are suffered to come together at ten or twelve years of 

 age. The capacity of a boy to endure pain is always tested before he 

 is permitted to take his place as a man in his tribe. The dead are 

 buried in the same position as that used by the ancient Peruvians. 

 The knees and elbows are tied together, and the body placed in a sitting 

 position in a large earthern jar. This jar is placed in a hole dug in 

 the floor of the malocca, and is filled in around the body with earth. 

 Two smaller jars are then placed, with mouth downwards, over the large 

 jar, and the whole is covered up with earth. 



The Indians of the Purus, as elsewhere in the valley of the Amazon, 



