RUSTIC FESTIVAL 



20 1 



barrier of the broad Amazons. It is a grand sight to see 

 these colossal butterflies by twos and threes floating at 

 a great height in the still air of a tropical morning. They 

 flap their wings only at long intervals, for I have noticed 

 them to sail a very considerable distance without a stroke. 

 Their wing-muscles and the thorax to which they are 

 attached, are very feeble in comparison with the wide 

 extent and weight of the wings : but the large expanse 

 of these members doubtless assists the insects in main- 

 taining their aerial course. Morphos are amongst the 

 most conspicuous of the insect denizens of Tropical 

 American forests, and the broad glades of the Villa Nova 

 woods seemed especially suited to them, for I noticed 

 here six species. The largest specimens of Morpho Cisseis 

 measure seven inches and a half in expanse. Another 

 smaller kind, which I could not capture, was of a pale 

 silvery-blue colour, and the polished surface of its wings 

 flashed like a silver speculum, as the insect flapped its 

 wings at a great elevation in the sunlight. 



To resume our voyage. We left Villa Nova on the 4th 

 of December. A light wind on the 5th carried us across 

 to the opposite shore and past the mouth of the Parana- 

 mirim do arco, or the little river of the bow, so called 

 on account of its being a short arm of the main river 

 of a curved shape, rejoining the Amazons a little below 

 Villa Nova. On the 6th, after passing a large island in 

 mid-river, we arrived at a place where a line of perpen- 

 dicular clay clifls, called the Barreiros de Cararaucu, 

 diverts slightly the course of the main stream, as at 

 Obydos. A little below these cliffs were a few settlers' 

 houses ; here Penna remained ten days to trade, a delay 

 which I turned to good account in augmenting very con- 

 siderably my collections. 



At the first house a festival was going forward. We 

 anchored at some distance from the shore, on account of 

 the water being shoaly, and early in the morning three 

 canoes put off laden with salt fish, oil of manatee, fowls 

 and bananas, wares which the owners wished to exchange 

 for different articles required for the festa. Soon after I 

 went ashore. The head man was a tall, well-made, 

 civilized Tapuyo named Marcellino, who, with his wife, 

 a thin, active, wiry old squaw, did the honours of their 

 house, I thought, admirably. The company consisted 

 of 50 or 60 Indians and Mamelucos ; some of them knew 



