2o8 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



with coloured ribbons ; several children also accompanied, 

 grotesquely decked with finery. Three old squaws went 

 in front, holding the * saire a large semicircular frame, 

 clothed with cotton and studded with ornaments, bits of 

 looking-glass, and so forth. This they danced up and 

 down, singing all the time a monotonous whining hymn 

 in the Tupi language, and at frequent intervals turning 

 round to face the followers, who then all stopped for a few 

 moments. I was told that this saire was a device adopted 

 by the Jesuits to attract the savages to church, for these 

 everywhere followed the mirrors, in which they saw as it 

 were magically reflected their own persons. In the 

 evening, good-humoured revelry prevailed on all sides. 

 The negroes, who had a saint of their own colour — St. 

 Benedito — had their holiday apart from the rest, and 

 spent the whole night singing and dancing to the music 

 of a long drum (gamba) and the caracasha. The drum 

 was a hollow log, having one end covered with skin, and 

 was played by the performer sitting astride upon it and 

 drumming with his knuckles. The caracasha is a notched 

 bamboo tube, which produces a harsh rattling noise by 

 passing a hard stick over the notches. Nothing could 

 exceed in dreary monotony this music and the singing 

 and dancing, which were kept up with unflagging vigour 

 all night long. The Indians did not get up a dance ; for 

 the whites and mamelucos had monopolized all the pretty 

 coloured girls for their own ball, and the older squaws 

 preferred looking on to taking a part themselves. Some 

 of their husbands joined the negroes, and got drunk very 

 quickly. It was amusing to notice how voluble the 

 usually taciturn red-skins became under the influence of 

 liquor. The negroes and Indians excused their own in- 

 temperance by saying the whites were getting drunk at 

 the other end of the town, which was quite true. 



The forest which encroaches on the ends of the weed- 

 grown streets yielded me a large number of interesting 

 insects, some of which have been described in the pre- 

 ceding chapter. The elevated land on which Serpa is 

 built appears to be a detached portion of the terra firma ; 

 behind, lies the great interior lake of Saraca, to the banks 

 of which there is a foot-road through the forest, but I 

 could not ascertain what was the distance. Outlets from 

 the lake enter the Amazons both above and below the 

 village. The woods were remarkably dense, and the 



