TUCUNAS 



503 



ears. The ending of the song is rather disappointing. It 

 begins with a few very slow and mellow notes, following 

 each other like the commencement of an air ; one listens 

 expecting to hear a complete strain, but an abrupt pause 

 occurs, and then the song breaks down, finishing with a 

 number of clicking unmusical sounds like a piping barrel- 

 organ out of wind and tune. I never heard the bird on 

 the Lower Amazons, and very rarely heard it even at 

 Ega ; it is the only songster which makes an impression 

 on the natives, who sometimes rest their paddles whilst 

 travelling in their small canoes along the shady by- 

 streams, as if struck by the mysterious sounds. 



The Tucuna Indians are a tribe resembling much the 

 Shumanas, Passes, Juris, and Mauhes in their physical 

 appearance and customs. They lead like those tribes a 

 settled agricultural life, each horde obeying a chief of 

 more or less influence, according to his energy and am- 

 bition, and possessing its paje or medicine-man, who 

 fosters its superstitions ; but they are much more idle 

 and debauched than other Indians belonging to the 

 superior tribes. They are not so warlike and loyal as the 

 Mundurucus, although resembling them in many respects, 

 nor have they the slender figures, dignified mien, and 

 gentle disposition of the Passes ; there are, however, no 

 trenchant points of difference to distinguish them from 

 these highest of all the tribes. Both men and women 

 are tattooed, the pattern being sometimes a scroll on 

 each cheek, but generally rows of short straight lines on 

 the face. Most of the older people wear bracelets, anklets 

 and garters of tapir-hide or tough bark ; in their homes 

 they wear no other dress except on festival days, when 

 they ornament themselves with feathers or masked cloaks 

 made of the inner bark of a tree. They were very shy 

 when I made my first visits to their habitations in the 

 forest, all scampering off to the thicket when I approached, 

 but on subsequent days they became more familiar, and 

 I found them a harmless, good-natured people. 



A great part of the horde living at the first Maloca 

 or village dwell in a common habitation, a large oblong 

 hut built and arranged inside with such a disregard of 

 all symmetry, that it appeared as though constructed by 

 a number of hands each working independently, stretching 

 a rafter or fitting in a piece of thatch, without reference 



