EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 385 



* tempo da friagem or the season of coldness. The 

 phenomenon, I presume, is to be accounted for by the 

 fact that in May it is winter in the southern temperate 

 zone, and that the cool currents of air travelling thence 

 northwards towards the equator, become only moderately 

 heated in their course, owing to the intermediate country 

 being a vast, partially-flooded plain, covered with humid 

 forests. 



CHAPTER XI 



EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA 



I WILL now proceed to give some account of the more 

 interesting of my shorter excursions in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ega. The incidents of the longer voyages, 

 which occupied each several months, will be narrated in 

 a separate chapter. 



The settlement, as before described, is built on a small 

 tract of cleared land at the lower or eastern end of the 

 lake, six or seven miles from the main Amazons, with 

 which the lake communicates by a narrow channel. On 

 the opposite shore of the broad expanse stands a small 

 village, called Nogueira, the houses of which are not 

 visible from Ega, except on very clear days ; the coast 

 on the Nogueira side is high, and stretches away into the 

 gray distance towards the south-west. The upper part 

 of the river Teffe is not visited by the Ega people, on 

 account of its extreme unhealthiness, and its barrenness in 

 salsaparilla and other wares. To Europeans it will seem 

 a most surprising thing that the people of a civilized 

 settlement, 170 years old, should still be ignorant of the 

 course of the river on whose banks their native place, for 

 which they proudly claim the title of city, is situated. It 

 would be very difficult for a private individual to explore 

 it, as the necessary number of Indian paddlers could not 

 be obtained. I knew only one person who had ascended 

 the Teffe to any considerable distance, and he was not 

 able to give me a distinct account of the river. The only 

 tribe known to live on its banks are the Catauishis, a 

 people who perforate their lips all round, and wear rows 

 of slender sticks in the holes ; their territory lies between 

 the Puras and the Jurua, embracing both shores of the 

 Teffe. A very considerable stream, the Bararua, enters 



2 B 



