FEAST OF FRUITS 



373 



place at the houses of a few families of the Juri tribe, 

 hidden in the depths of the forest on the banks of a creek 

 about three miles from Ega. I saw a little of it one year, 

 when hunting in the neighbourhood with an Indian 

 attendant. There were about 1 50 people assembled, 

 nearly all red-skins, and signs of the orgy having been very 

 rampant the previous night were apparent in the litter 

 and confusion all around, and in the number of drunken 

 men lying asleep under the trees and sheds. The women 

 had manufactured a great quantity of spirits in rude clay 

 stills, from mandioca, bananas, and pine-apples. I doubt 

 whether there was ever much symbolic meaning attached 

 by the aborigines to festivals of this kind. The harvest- 

 time of the Umiri and Wishi is one of their seasons of 

 abundance, and they naturally made it the occasion of one 

 of their mad, drunken holidays. They learnt the art of 

 distilling spirits from the early Portuguese ; it is only, 

 however, one or two of the superior tribes, such as the 

 Juris and Passes, who practise it. The Indians of the 

 Upper Amazons, like those of the Lower river, mostly use 

 fermented drinks (called here Caysuma), made from 

 mandioca cakes and different kinds of fruit. 



I did not see much fruit about. A few old women in 

 one of the sheds were preparing and cooking porridge of 

 bananas in large earthenware kettles. It was now near 

 mid-day, the time when a little rest is taken before resuming 

 the orgy in the evening ; but a small party of young men 

 and women were keeping up the dance to the accompani- 

 ment of drums made of hollow logs and beaten with the 

 hands. The men formed a curved line on the outside, 

 and the women a similar line on the inside facing their 

 partners. Each man had in his right hand a long reed 

 representing a javelin, and rested his left on the shoulders 

 of his neighbours. They all moved, first to the right and 

 then to the left, with a slow step, singing a drawling 

 monotonous verse, in a language which I did not under- 

 stand. The same figure was repeated in the dreariest 

 possible way for at least half an hour, and in fact consti- 

 tuted the whole of the dance. The assembled crowd in- 

 cluded individuals of most of the tribes living in the region 

 around Ega ; but the majority were Miranhas and Juris. 

 They had no common chief, an active middle-aged Juri, 

 named Alexandro, in the employ of Senhor Chrysostomo 

 of Ega, seeming to have the principal management. This 



