314 



VOYAGE ON THE TAP A JOS. 



nare-cuoire. Awakened by his cries, the Cuyabanos fell upon the mon- 

 ster, who, in spite of every thing, escaped. 



" I relieved him as well as I could. I had with me but a scalpel, 

 some camphor, and a phial of volatile salts. It would have been best 

 to amputate the limb, which was horribly mutilated. 



" I had myself an opportunity of observing the dangers and privations 

 these men submit to, to carry to Cuyaba the commodities necessary there. 



"A caravan, called here Mon^ao, which is loaded at Itaituba, for ten 

 contos of reis, (five thousand dollars,) with salt, guarana, powder, and 

 lead, arriving in safety at Cuyaba, can calculate upon fifteen or twenty 

 contos of reis profit. 



"At Para the salt can be sold for three francs the alquiere ; at Cuyaba, 

 it is worth one hundred and fifty francs. 



" They can descend the river in forty days; but it requires five months 

 to ascend it. 



" The forests that border the Tapajos are infested by savage Indians, 

 who frequently attack the Mon^aos ; and dangerous fevers sometimes 

 carry off those whom the Indian arrow has spared. 



" I left the caravan at Sta. Ana dos Caxoeiras ; it continued its route 

 towards the source of the Tapajos, and I entered the country inhabited 

 by the Mundrucus. 



" The M undrucus, the most warlike nation of the Amazon, do not num- 

 ber less than fifteen or twenty thousand warriors, and are the terror of 

 all other tribes. 



"They appear to have a deadly hatred to the negro, but a slight 

 sympathy for the white man. 



"During the rainy season they go to the plains to pull the sarsaparilla 

 root, which they afterwards exchange for common hardware and rum ; 

 the other six months of the year are given to war. 



" Each Malacca (village) has an arsenal, or fortress, where the warriors 

 stay at night ; in the day they live with their families. 



" The children of both sexes are tattooed (when scarcely ten years old) 

 with a pencil, or rather a kind of comb, made of the thorns of the 

 palm-tree, called Muru-muru. The father (if the child is a boy) marks 

 upon the body of the poor creature, who is not even permitted to com- 

 plain, long bloody lines, from the forehead to the waist, which he after- 

 wards sprinkles with the ashes or coal of some kind of resin. 



" These marks are never effaced. But if this first tattooing, which is 

 compulsory among the Mundrucus, sometimes suffices for woman's co- 

 quetry, that of the warriors is not satisfied. They must have at least a 

 good layer of geni papo, (huitocj or of roucou, (annatto,) upon every 



