NICKNAMES 



425 



off across the praia towards the encampment. An ob- 

 stacle here presented itself on which we had not counted. 

 The sun had shone all day through a cloudless sky un- 

 tempered by a breath of wind, and the sands had be- 

 come heated by it to a degree that rendered walking over 

 them with our bare feet impossible. The most hardened 

 footsoles of the party could not endure the burning soil. 

 We made several attempts ; we tried running : wrapped 

 the cool leaves of Heliconiae round our feet, but in no 

 way could we step forward many yards. There was no 

 means of getting back to our friends before night, except 

 going round the praia, a circuit of about four miles, and 

 walking through the water or on the moist sand. To 

 get to the water-side from the place where we then stood 

 was not difficult, as a thick bed of a flowering shrub, 

 called tintarana, an infusion of the leaves of which is 

 used to dye black, lay on that side of the sand-bank. 

 Footsore and wearied, burthened with our guns, and 

 walking for miles through the tepid shallow water under 

 the brain-scorching vertical sun, we had, as may be 

 imagined, anything but a pleasant time of it. I did not, 

 however, feel any inconvenience afterwards. Every one 

 enjoys the most lusty health whilst living this free and 

 wild life on the rivers. 



The other hunting trip which I have alluded to was 

 undertaken in company with three friendly young half- 

 castes. Two of them were brothers, namely, Joao (John) 

 and Zephyrino Jabuti : Jabuti, or tortoise, being a nick- 

 name which their father had earned for his slow gait, 

 and which, as is usual in this country, had descended 

 as the surname of the family. The other was Jose 

 Frazao, a nephew of Senhor Chrysostomo, of Ega, an 

 active, clever, and manly young fellow whom I much 

 esteemed. He was almost a white, his father being a 

 Portuguese and his mother a Mameluco. We were ac- 

 companied by an Indian named Lino, and a Mulatto 

 boy, whose office was to carry our game. 



Our proposed hunting-ground on this occasion lay 

 across the water, about fifteen miles distant. We set out 

 in a small montaria, at four o'clock in the morning, again 

 leaving the encampment asleep, and travelled at a good 

 pace up the northern channel of the Solimoens, or that 

 lying between the island Catua and the left bank of the 



