370 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



important point of all, getting gradually and completely 

 drunk. But he attaches a kind of superstitious signifi- 

 cance to these acts, and thinks that the amusements 

 appended to the Roman Catholic holidays as celebrated 

 by the descendants of the Portuguese, are also an essential 

 part of the religious ceremonies. But in this respect, the 

 uneducated whites and half-breeds are not a bit more en- 

 lightened than the poor duU-souled Indian. All look upon 

 a religious holiday as an amusement, in which the priest 

 takes the part of director or chief actor. 



Almost every unusual event, independent of saints' 

 ^ days, is made the occasion of a holiday by the sociable, 

 easy-going people of the white and mameluco classes ; 

 funerals, christenings, weddings, the arrival of strangers, 

 and so forth. The custom of * waking ' the dead is also 

 kept up. A few days after I arrived, I was awoke in the 

 middle of a dark moist night by Cardozo, to sit up with a 

 neighbour whose wife had just died. I found the body 

 laid out on a table, with crucifix and lighted wax-candles 

 at the head, and the room full of women and girls squatted 

 on stools or on their haunches. The men were seated 

 round the open door, smoking, drinking coffee, and telling 

 stories ; the bereaved husband exerting himself much 

 to keep the people merry during the remainder of the 

 night. The Ega people seem to like an excuse for turning 

 night into day ; it is so cool and pleasant, and they can sit 

 about during these hours in the open air, clad as usual in 

 simple shirt and trousers, without streaming with per- 

 spiration. 



The patron saint is Santa Theresa ; the festival at 

 whose anniversary lasts, like most of the others, ten days. 

 It begins very quietly with evening litanies sung in the 

 church, which are attended by the greater part of the 

 population, all clean and gaily dressed in calicos and 

 muslins ; the girls wearing jasmines and other natural 

 flowers in their hair, no other head-dress being worn by 

 females of any class. The evenings pass pleasantly ; the 

 church is lighted up with wax candles, and illuminated 

 on the outside by a great number of little oil lamps — rude 

 clay cups, or halves of the thick rind of the bitter orange, 

 which are fixed all over the front. The congregation seem 

 very attentive, and the responses to the litany of Our 

 Lady, sung by a couple of hundred fresh female voices, 

 ring agreeably through the still village. Towards the end 



