PROVINCE OF PARA. 



473 



frequently denominated the Furo, or fury of the Tuppynambaranas, describes 

 many windings, traversing some lakes until it enters the Amazons by a 

 spacious embouchure, called the river Mauhes, which is one hundred and fifty 

 miles below the principal mouth of the Madeira. 



The Mauhes, so called from the Mauhe nation inhabiting its banks, has ac- 

 quired also the appellation of the river of the Nambaranas, derived from a 

 village or aldeia of the Tuppynambas, which existed near the eastern margins 

 of the lake Uaycurapa, and thirty miles above its mouth. 



In the space of forty miles from the Furo dos Tuppynambaranas to the town 

 of Borbai there are the following lakes : Annamaha, Guarybas, Cauhintu, 

 Taboca, Freeh al, Macacos, and Jatuaranna, all in the proximity of the river, into 

 which their superfluous waters are discharged. Forty miles above the said 

 town is the entrance to the lake Mattary, and beyond it that of the lake 

 Murucutuba. 



Between the Furo dos Tuppynambaranas and the mouth of the Madeira, is 

 the outlet of the lake Massurany. The domestic animals of this district are at 

 present very inconsiderable ; but the wild ones peculiar to the other comarcas 

 are met with in much greater numbers, in consequence of the gun not having 

 been yet so much introduced. With the exception of some portions of territory 

 upon the banks of the rivers which encompass this district, the whole is in the 

 power of various savage tribes, of whom, we are best acquainted with the Jum- 

 mas, the Mauhes, the Pammas, the Parintintins, the Muras, the Andiras, the 

 Araras, and the Mundrucus, from which latter the district borrows its name. 

 Each has its peculiar idiom, and the whole are divided into hordes ; of which 

 some wander about the woods and forests without any fixed residence : others 

 are established in aldeias, where they intermix with the Christians, and have 

 learned to cultivate various necessaries of life. So far are some of them influenced 

 by the power of example, that they begin to cover, in part, their naked bodies ; 

 and many demonstrate their knowledge of the advantage of friendship with the 

 Christians, by subduing their native ferocity into a tractable observance of the 

 rules of the white settlers. 



The bow is the weapon common to the male sex, of whatever age they may 

 be : many possess another still more fatal, denominated esgaravatana ; it is a 

 reed of chosen wood, with ten to twelve palms of length, formed of two pieces 

 glued together with wax, and firmly bound with thongs made of the bark of 

 plants, whose perfect and equally round orifice has eight lines of diameter, and 

 serves for the envenomed arrows, which are discharged by a puff of the breath. 



3 p 



