INDIANS OF THE MADEIRA 211 



and to trade with the Indians, with whom their relations 

 were generally on a friendly footing. In that year many 

 India-rubber collectors resorted to this region, stimulated 

 by the high price (25. 6d. a pound) which the article was 

 at that time fetching at Para ; and then the Araras, a 

 fierce and intractable tribe of Indians, began to be trouble- 

 some. They attacked several canoes and massacred every 

 one on board, the Indian crews as well as the white 

 traders. Their plan was to lurk in ambush near the 

 sandy beaches where canoes stop for the night, and 

 then fall upon the people whilst asleep. Sometimes they 

 came under pretence of wishing to trade, and then as 

 soon as they could get the trader at a disadvantage shot 

 him and his crew from behind trees. Their arms were 

 clubs, bows, and Taquara arrows, the latter a formidable 

 weapon tipped with a piece of flinty bamboo shaped like 

 a spear-head ; they could propel it with such force as to 

 pierce a man completely through the body. The whites 

 of Borba made reprisals, inducing the war-like Mun- 

 durucus, who had an old feud with the Araras, to assist 

 them. This state of things lasted two or three years, 

 and made a journey up the Madeira a risky undertaking, 

 as the savages attacked all comers. Besides the Araras 

 and the Mundurucus, the latter a tribe friendly to the 

 whites, attached to agriculture, and inhabiting the interior 

 of the country from the Madeira to beyond the Tapajos, 

 two other tribes of Indians now inhabit the lower Madeira, 

 namely, the Parentintins and the Muras. Of the former 

 I did not hear much ; the Muras lead a lazy quiet life on 

 the banks of the labyrinths of lakes and channels which 

 intersect the low country on both sides of the river below 

 Borba. The Araras are one of those tribes which do not 

 plant mandioca ; and indeed have no settled habita- 

 tions. They are very similar in stature and other physical 

 features to the Mundurucus, although differing from them 

 so widely in habits and social condition. They paint 

 their chins red with Urucii (Anatto), and have usually a 

 black tatooed streak on each side of the face, running 

 from the corner of the mouth to the temple. They have 

 not yet learnt the use of firearms, have no canoes, and 

 spend their lives roaming over the interior of the country, 

 living on game and wild fruits. When they wish to 

 cross;fa river they make a temporary canoe with the 

 thickj^bark of trees, which they secure in the required 



