504 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



to what his fellow-labourers were doing. The walls as 

 well as the roof are covered with thatch of palm-leaves ; 

 each piece consisting of leaflets plaited and attached in 

 a row to a lath many feet in length. Strong upright posts 

 support the roof, hammocks being slung between them, 

 leaving a free space for passage and for fires in the middle, 

 and on one side is an elevated stage (girao) overhead, 

 formed of split palm stems. The Tucunas excel most of 

 the other tribes in the manufacture of pottery. They 

 make broad-mouthed jars for Tucupi sauce, caysuma or 

 mandioca beer, capable of holding twenty or more gallons, 

 ornamenting them outside with crossed diagonal streaks of 

 various colours. These jars, with cooking-pots, smaller jars 

 for holding water, blow-pipes, quivers, matiri bags ^ full 

 of small articles, i)askets, skins of animals, and so forth, 

 form the principal part of the furniture of their huts 

 both large and small. The dead bodies of their chiefs are 

 interred, the knees doubled up, in large jars under the 

 floors of their huts. 



The semi-religious dances and drinking bouts usual 

 amongst the settled tribes of Amazonian Indians are 

 indulged in to greater excess by the Tucunas than they 

 are by most other tribes. The Jurupari or Demon is 

 the only superior being they have any conception of, 

 and his name is mixed up with all their ceremonies, but 

 it is difficult to ascertain what they consider to be his 

 attributes. He seems to be believed in simply as a 

 mischievous imp, who is at the bottom of all those mis- 

 haps of their daily life, the causes of which are not very 

 immediate or obvious to their dull understandings. It is 

 vain to try to get information out of a Tucuna on this 

 subject ; they affect great mystery when the name is 

 mentioned, and give very confused answers to questions : 

 it was clear, however, that the idea of a spirit as a bene- 

 ficent God or Creator had not entered the minds of these 



^ These bags are formed of remarkably neat twine made 

 of Bromelia fibres elaborately knitted, all in one piece, with 

 sticks ; a belt of the same material, but more closely woven, 

 being attached to the top to suspend them by. They afford 

 good examples of the mechanical ability of these Indians. 

 The Tucunas also possess the art of skinning and stuffing 

 birds, the handsome kinds of which they sell in great numbers 

 to passing travellers. 



