320 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



should admire and travel to collect the beautiful birds and 

 animals of his country, and neither he nor his people spoke 

 a single word about trading, or gave us any trouble by 

 coveting the things we had brought. He related to me 

 the events of the preceding three days. The Pararauates 

 were a tribe of intractable savages with whom the Mun- 

 durucus have been always at war. They had no fixed 

 abode, and of course made no plantations, but passed their 

 lives like the wild beasts, roaming through the forest, 

 guided by the sun : wherever they found themselves at 

 night-time there they slept, slinging their bast hammocks, 

 which are carried by the women, to the trees. They 

 ranged over the whole of the interior country, from the 

 head waters of the Itapacura (a branch of the Tapajos 

 flowing from the east, whose sources lie in about 7° south 

 latitude) to the banks of the Curua (about 3° south lati- 

 tude), and from the Mundurucu settlements on the Tapa- 

 jos (55° west longitude) to the Pacajaz (50° west longitude). 

 They cross the streams which lie in their course in bark 

 canoes, which they make on reaching the water, and cast 

 away after landing on the opposite side. The tribe is 

 very numerous, but the different hordes obey only their 

 own chieftains. The Mundurucus of the upper Tapajos 

 have an expedition on foot against them at the present 

 time, and the Tushaua supposed that the horde which 

 had just been chased from his maloca were fugitives from 

 that direction. There were about a hundred of them — 

 including men, women, and children. Before they were 

 discovered the hungry savages had uprooted all the 

 macasheira, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane, which the 

 industrious Mundurucus had planted for the season, on 

 the east side of the river. As soon as they were seen they 

 made off, but the Tushaua quickly got together all the 

 young men of the settlement, about thirty in number, 

 who armed themselves with guns, bows and arrows, and 

 javelins, and started in pursuit. They tracked them, as 

 before related, for two days through the forest, but lost 

 their traces on the further bank of the Cuparitinga, a 

 branch stream flowing from the north-east. The pursuers 

 thought, at one time, they were close upon them, having 

 found the inextinguished fire of their last encampment. 

 The footmarks of the chief could be distinguished from 

 the rest by their great size and the length of the stride 

 A small necklace made of scarlet beans was the only 



