PASSE INDIANS 



395 



usual quiet, courteous manner for not having knives and 

 forks ; Cardozo and I ate by the aid of wooden spoons, 

 the Indians using their fingers. The old man waited 

 until we were all served before he himself commenced. 

 At the end of the meal, one of the women brought us 

 water in a painted clay basin of Indian manufacture, 

 and a clean but coarse cotton napkin, that we might wash 

 our hands. 



The horde of Passes of which Pedro-uassu was Tushaua 

 or chieftain, was at this time reduced to a very small 

 number of individuals. The disease mentioned in the 

 last chapter had for several generations made great havoc 

 amongst them ; many, also, had entered the service of 

 whites at Ega, and, of late years, intermarriages with 

 whites, half-castes, and civilized Indians had been frequent. 

 The old man bewailed the fate of his race to Cardozo with 

 tears in his eyes. * The people of my nation he said, 

 ' have always been good friends to the Cariwas (whites), 

 but before my grandchildren are old like me the name of 

 Passe will be forgotten'. In so far as the Passes have 

 amalgamated with European immigrants or their descend- 

 ants, and become civilized Brazilian citizens, there can 

 scarcely be ground for lamenting their extinction as a 

 nation ; but it fills one with regret to learn how many die 

 prematurely of a disease which seems to arise on their 

 simply breathing the same air as the whites. The original 

 territory of the tribe must have been of large extent, for 

 Passes are said to have been found by the early Portu- 

 guese colonists on the Rio Negro ; an ancient settlement 

 on that river. Bar cellos, having been peopled by them 

 when it was first established ; and they formed also part 

 of the original population of Fonte-boa on the Solimoens. 

 Their hordes were therefore spread over a region 400 

 miles in length from east to west. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that they have been confounded by the colonists, 

 with other neighbouring tribes who' tattoo their faces in a 

 similar manner ; such as the Juris, Uainumas, Shumanas,. 

 Arauas, and Tucunas. The extinct tribe of Yurimauas, 

 or Sorimoas, from which the river Solimoens derives its 

 name, according to traditions extant at Ega, resembled 

 the Passes in their slender figures and friendly disposition. 

 These tribes (with others lying between them) peopled 

 the banks of the main river and its by-streams from the 

 mouth of the Rio Negro to Peru. True Passes existed in 



