294 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



foliage, the path branched off in various directions, and 

 the boy having left us we took the wrong turn. We were 

 brought to a stand soon after by the barking of dogs ; and 

 on shouting, as is customary on approaching a dwelling, 

 'O da casa ! * (Oh of the house!) a dark-skinned native, 

 a Cafuzo, with a most unpleasant expression of counten- 

 ance, came forth through the tangled maze of bushes, 

 armed with a long knife, with which he pretended to be 

 whittling a stick. He directed us to the house of Cypriano, 

 which was about a mile distant along another forest road. 

 The circumstance of the Cafuzo coming out armed to 

 receive visitors very much astonished my companions, 

 who talked it over at every place we visited for several 

 days afterwards ; the freest and most unsuspecting 

 welcome in these retired places being always counted upon 

 by strangers. But, as Manoel remarked, the fellow may 

 have been one of the unpardoned rebel leaders who had 

 settled here after the recapture of Santarem in 1836, and 

 lived in fear of being enquired for by the authorities of 

 Santarem. After all our trouble we found Cypriano absent 

 from home. His house was a large one, and full of people, 

 old and young, women and children, all of whom were 

 Indians or mamelucos. Several smaller huts surrounded 

 the large dwelling, besides extensive open sheds con- 

 taining mandioca ovens and rude wooden mills for grind- 

 ing sugar-cane to make molasses. All the buildings were 

 embosomed in trees : it would be scarcely possible to find 

 a more retired nook, and an air of contentment was spread 

 over the whole establishment. Cypriano's wife, a good- 

 looking mameluco girl, was superintending the packing 

 of farinha. Two or three old women, seated on mats, 

 were making baskets with narrow strips of bark from the 

 leaf-stalks of palms, whilst others were occupied lining 

 them with the broad leaves of a species of maranta, and 

 filling them afterwards with farinha, which was previously 

 measured in a rude square vessel. It appeared that 

 Senhor Cypriano was a large producer of the article, 

 selling 300 baskets (sixty pounds' weight each) annually 

 to Santarem traders. I was sorry we were unable to see 

 him, but it was useless waiting, as we were told all the men 

 were at present occupied in ' pucherums and he would 

 be unable to give me the assistance I required. We re- 

 turned to the canoe in the evening, and, after moving out 

 jnto the river, anchored and slept. 



