5o6 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



arrange the rest of the affair, and fix a day for the marriage 

 ceremony. A wedding which took place in the Christmas 

 week whilst I was at St. Paulo, was kept up with great 

 spirit for three or four days ; flagging during the heats of 

 mid-day, but renewing itself with increased vigour every 

 evening. During the whole time the bride, decked out 

 with feather ornaments, was under the charge of the 

 older squaws, whose business seemed to be sedulously 

 to keep the bridegroom at a safe distance until the end 

 of the dreary period of dancing and boozing. The 

 Tucunas have the singular custom, in common with the 

 Collinas and Mauhes, of treating their young girls, on their 

 showing the first signs of womanhood, as if they had 

 committed some crime. They are sent up to the girao 

 under the smoky and filthy roof, and kept there on very 

 meagre diet, sometimes for a whole month. I heard of 

 one poor girl dying under this treatment. 



The original territory of the Tucuna tribe embraced 

 the banks of most of the by-streams, from forty miles 

 below St. Paulo to beyond Loreto in Peru, a distance 

 of about 200 miles ; the tribe, however, is not well- 

 demarcated from that of the Collinas, who appear to be 

 a section of Tucunas, and whose home extends 200 miles 

 further to the east. The only other tribe of this neigh- 

 bourhood concerning which I obtained any information 

 were the Majeronas, whose territory embraces several 

 hundred miles of the western bank of the river Jauari, 

 an affluent of the Solimoens, 120 miles beyond St. Paulo. 

 These are a fierce, indomitable, and hostile people, like 

 the Araras of the river Madeira ; they are also cannibals. 

 The navigation of the Jauari is rendered impossible on 

 account of the Majeronas lying in wait on its banks to 

 intercept and murder all travellers, especially whites. 



Four months before my arrival at St. Paulo, two 

 young half-castes (nearly white) of the village went to 

 trade on the Jauari ; the Majeronas having shown signs 

 of abating their hostility for a year or two previously. 

 They had not been long gone, when their canoe returned 

 with the news that the two young fellows had been shot 

 with arrows, roasted and eaten by the savages. Jose 

 Patricio, with his usual activity in the cause of law and 

 order, despatched a party of armed men of the National 

 Guard to the place to make inquiries, and, if the murder 

 should appear to be unprovoked, to retaliate. When they 



