490 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



It is curious that, although prevalent in many places on 

 the Solimoens, no resident of Ega exhibited signs of the 

 disease : the early explorers of the country, on noticing 

 spotted skins to be very frequent in certain localities, 

 thought they were peculiar to a few tribes of Indians. 

 The younger children in these houses on the Sapo were 

 free from spots ; but two or three of them, about ten years 

 of age, showed signs of their commencement in rounded 

 yellowish patches on the skin, and these appeared languid 

 and sickly, although the blotched adults seemed not to be 

 affected in their general health. A middle-aged half- 

 caste at Fonte Boa told me he had cured himself of the 

 disorder by strong doses of salsaparilla ; the black patches 

 had caused the hair of his beard and eyebrows to fall off, 

 but it had grown again since his cure. 



When my tall friend saw me, after dinner, collecting 

 insects along the paths near the houses, he approached, 

 and, taking me by the arm, led me to a mandioca shed, 

 making signs, as he could speak very little Tupi, that 

 he had something to show. I was not a little surprised 

 when, having mounted the girao, or stage of split palm- 

 stems, and taken down an object transfixed to a post, 

 he exhibited, with an air of great mystery, a large chry- 

 salis suspended from a leaf, which he placed carefully in 

 my hands, saying * Pana-pana curl * (Tupi : ' butterfly 

 by-and-by '). Thus I found that the metamorphoses of 

 insects were known to these savages ; but being unable 

 to talk with my new friend, I could not ascertain what 

 ideas such a phenomenon had given rise to in his mind. 

 The good fellow did not leave my side during the remainder 

 of our stay ; but, thinking apparently that I had come 

 here for information, he put himself to considerable trouble 

 to give me all he could. He made a quantity of Hypadu 

 powder, that I might see the process ; going about the 

 task with much action and ceremony, as though he were 

 a conjurer performing some wonderful trick. 



We left these friendly people about four o'clock in 

 the afternoon, and in descending the umbrageous river, 

 stopped, about half-way down, at another house built in 

 one of the most charming situations I had yet seen in 

 this country. A clean, narrow, sandy pathway led from 

 the shady port to the house, through a tract of forest of 

 indescribable luxuriance. The buildings stood on an 

 eminence in the middle of a level cleared space ; the firm 



