486 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



arrow-grass cut in different lengths and arranged like 

 pan-pipes. "With this they while away whole hours, 

 lolling in ragged bast hammocks slung in their dark, 

 smoky huts. The Tunantins people say that the Cais- 

 hanas have persecuted the wild animals and birds to such 

 an extent near their settlements that there is now quite 

 a scarcity of animal food. If they kill a Toucan, it is 

 considered an important event, and the bird is made to 

 serve as a meal for a score or more persons. They boil 

 the meat in earthenware kettles filled with Tucupi sauce, 

 and eat it with beiju, or mandioca-cakes. The women 

 are not allowed to taste of the meat, but forced to content 

 themselves with sopping pieces of cake in the liquor. 



I obtained a little information here concerning the 

 inhabitants of the banks of the Issa, a stream 700 miles 

 in length, which, having its sources at the foot of the 

 volcanoes near Pasto, in New Granada, enters the Ama- 

 zons about twenty miles to the west of Tunantins. I 

 once met a mulatto of Pasto and his wife, who had de- 

 scended this river from its source to its mouth. They 

 lost all their luggage in passing the cataracts ; but found, 

 after the first fifteen days of their journey (about 150 

 miles), no more obstructions to navigation down to the 

 Solimoens. It is not so unhealthy a river as the Japura ; 

 but the natives are much less friendly to the whites than 

 those inhabiting that river. To the distance of about 

 400 miles from Tunantins, its banks are now almost 

 destitute of inhabitants. A few half -civilized and peace- 

 able Passes, Juris, and Shumanas, are settled near its 

 mouth ; but higher up the Marietes occupy the domain, 

 and towards the frontiers of New Granada, Miranhas 

 are the only Indians met with, whose territory extends 

 overland thence to the Japura. The Marietes and 

 Miranhas have been for many years constantly at war, 

 and the depopulation of the country is owing partly to 

 this circumstance, and partly to diseases introduced by 

 the whites. These wars are not carried on by the whole 

 of each tribe at once, but in a series of partial hostilities 

 between separate hordes or clans. The hordes of each 

 nation live apart ; indeed these tribes have no villages, 

 but are scattered in families over the country, and are 

 connected together by no other ties than a common name 

 and the tradition of general enmity towards the hordes 

 bearing the name of the other nation. Moreover, hordes 



