i8so.] 



FOOD OF THE INDIANS. 



117 



brought me, much disfigured with blood, having been shot at 

 four or five times each before they fell. The beautiful trumpeter 

 {Psophia crepitans)^ a different species from that found at Para, 

 was plentiful here. A rare little toucan {Pteroglossus Azarce), 

 and a few parrots, hawks, and Brazilian partridges, were the 

 only other birds we met with. 



Insects were by no means abundant, there being few paths in 

 the woods in which to hunt for them or to cause them to* ac- 

 cumulate together ; for I have invariably found that in an open 

 path through the forest the chequered light and shade causes 

 a variety of plants to spring up and flowers to blow, which in 

 their turn attract a great variety of insects. An open pathway 

 seems to have similar attractions for many kinds of insects to 

 what it has for ourselves. The great blue butterflies, and many 

 smaller ones, wfll course along it for miles, and if driven into 

 the forest will generally soon return to it again. The gleams 

 of sunshine and the free current of air attract some; others seek 

 the blossoms which there abound ; while every particle of animal 

 matter in the pathway is sure to be visited by a number of dif- 

 ferent species : so that upon the number and extent of the paths 

 and roads which traverse the forest will depend in a great measure 

 the success of the entomologist in these parts of South America. 



There were two other rooms in the house where I lived, 

 inhabited by three families. The men generally wore nothing 

 but a pair of trousers, the women only a petticoat, and the 

 children nothing at all. They all lived in the poorest manner, 

 and at first I was quite puzzled to find out when they had their 

 meals. In the morning early they would each have a cuya of 

 mingau * ; then about mid-day they would eat some dry farinha 

 cake or a roasted yam ; and in the evening some more mingau 

 of farinha or plantains. I could not imagine that they really had 

 nothing else to eat, but at last was obliged to come to the con- 

 clusion that various preparations of mandiocca and water formed 

 their only food. About once a week they would get a few 

 small fish or a bird, but then it would be divided among so 

 many as only to serve as a relish to the cassava bread. My 

 hunter never took anything out with him but a bag of dry 

 farinha, and after being away fourteen hours in his canoe would 

 come home and sit down in his hammock, and converse as if 



* Mingau is a kind of porridge made either of farinha or of the large 

 plantain called pacova. 



