220 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



bark of trees, bound up into a semi-cylindrical shape by- 

 means of woody lianas ; these are now rarely seen, as 

 most families possess montarias, which they have con- 

 trived to steal from the settlers from time to time. Their 

 food is chiefly fish and turtle, which they are very expert 

 in capturing. It is said by their neighbours that they 

 dive after turtles, and succeed in catching them by the 

 legs, which I believe is true in the shallow lakes where 

 turtles are imprisoned in the dry season. They shoot 

 fish with bow and arrow, and have no notion of any 

 other method of cooking it than by roasting. It is not 

 quite clear whether the whole tribe were originally quite 

 ignorant of agriculture ; as some families on the banks 

 of the streams behind Villa Nova, who could scarcely 

 have acquired the art in recent times, plant mandioca ; 

 but, as a general rule, the only vegetable food used by 

 the Muras is bananas and wild fruits. The original home 

 of this tribe was the banks of the Lower Madeira. It 

 appears they were hostile to the European settlers from 

 the beginning ; plundering their sitios, waylaying their 

 canoes, and massacring all who fell into their power. 

 About fifty years ago the Portuguese succeeded in turning 

 the warlike propensities of the Mundurucus against them ; 

 and these, in the course of many years' persecution, 

 greatly weakened the power of the tribe, and drove a 

 great part of them from their seats on the banks of the 

 Madeira. The Muras are now scattered in single hordes 

 and families over a wide extent of country bordering the 

 main river from Villa Nova to Catua, near Ega, a distance 

 of 800 miles. Since the disorders of 1835-6, when they 

 committed great havoc amongst the peaceable settle- 

 ments from Santarem to the Rio Negro, and were pursued 

 and slaughtered in great numbers by the Mundurucus in 

 alliance with the Brazilians, they have given no serious 

 trouble. 



The reasons which lead me to think the Muras are 

 merely an ofEshoot from the Mundurucus, or some other 

 allied section of the widely-spread Tupi nation, and not 

 an originally distinct people, are founded on a general 

 comparison of the different tribes of Amazonian Indians. 

 In the first place, there is no sharply-defined difference 

 between sections of the Indian race, either in physical 

 or moral qualities. They are all very much alike in 

 bodily structure ; and, although some are much lower 



