2l8 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



of the low chamber, and the entrails were scattered 

 about the floor, on which the women with their children 

 were squatted. These had a timid, distrustful expression 

 of countenance, and their bodies were begrimed with 

 black mud, which is smeared over the skin as a protection 

 against mosquitoes. The children were naked, the women 

 wore petticoats of coarse cloth, ragged round the edges, 

 and stained in blotches with murixi, a dye made from 

 the bark of a tree. One of them wore a necklace of 

 monkey's teeth. There were scarcely any household 

 utensils ; the place was bare with the exception of two 

 dirty grass hammocks hung in the corners. I missed 

 the usual mandioca sheds behind the house, with their 

 surrounding cotton, cacao, coffee, and lemon trees. Two 

 or three young men of the tribe were lounging about the 

 low open doorway. They were stoutly-built fellows, but 

 less well-proportioned than the semi-civilized Indians of 

 the Lower Amazons generally are. Their breadth of 

 chest was remarkable, and their arms were wonderfully 

 thick and muscular. The legs appeared short in pro- 

 portion to the trunk ; the expression of their countenances 

 was unmistakably more sullen and brutal, and the skin 

 of a darker hue tha.n is common in the Brazilian red man. 

 Before we left the hut, an old couple came in ; the hus- 

 band carrying his paddle, bow, arrows, and harpoon, 

 the woman bent beneath the weight of a large basket 

 filled with palm fruits. The man was of low stature and 

 had a wild appearance from the long coarse hair which 

 hung over his forehead. Both his lips were pierced 

 with holes, as is usual with the older Muras seen on the 

 river. They used formerly to wear tusks of the wild hog 

 in these holes whenever they went out to encounter 

 strangers or their enemies in war. The gloomy savagery, 

 filth, and poverty of the people in this place, made me 

 feel quite melancholy, and I was glad to return to the 

 canoe. They offered us no civilities ; they did not even 

 pass the ordinary salutes, which all the semi-civiUzed 

 and many savage Indians proffer on a first meeting. 

 The men persecuted Penna for casha9a, which they 

 seemed to consider the only good thing the white man 

 brings with him. As they had nothing whatever to give 

 in exchange, Penna declined to supply them. They 

 followed us as we descended to the port, becoming very 

 troublesome when about a dozen had collected together. 



