154 



TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. {November, 



be formed were the granite in a plastic state forced up against 

 hard angular masses. 



On reaching the cave I immediately skinned my prize 

 before it was dark, and we then got our supper. No more 

 "gallos" were brought in that day. The fires were made up, 

 the pork put to smoke over them, and around me were thirteen 

 naked Indians, talking in unknown tongues. Two only could 

 speak a little Portuguese, and with them I conversed, 

 answering their various questions about where iron came from, 

 and how calico was made, and if paper grew in my country, 

 and if we had much mandiocca and plantains ; and they were 

 greatly astonished to hear that all were white men there, and 

 could not imagine how white men could work, or how there 

 could be a country without forest. They would ask strange 

 questions about where the wind came from, and the rain, and 

 how the sun and moon got back to their places again after 

 disappearing from us ; and when I had tried to satisfy them 

 on these points, they w^ould tell me forest tales of jaguars and 

 pumas, and of the fierce wild hogs, and of the dreadful curupuri, 

 the demon of the woods, and of the wild man with a long tail, 

 found far in the centre of the forest. They told me also a 

 curious tale about the tapir, which, however, others have assured 

 me is not true. 



The tapir, they say, has a peculiar fancy for dropping his 

 dung only in the water, and they never find it except in brooks 

 and springs, though it is so large and abundant that it could 

 not be overlooked in the forest. If there is no water to be 

 found, the animal makes a rough basket of leaves and carries 

 it to the nearest stream, and there deposits it. The Indians' 

 tale goes, that one tapir met another in the forest with a basket 

 in his mouth. " What have you in your basket ? " said the 

 one. " Fruit," answered the other. " Let me have some," 

 said the first. " I won't," said the other ; upon which the first 

 tapir pulled the basket from the other's mouth, broke it open, 

 and on seeing the contents both turned tail, quite ashamed of 

 themselves, ran away in opposite directions, and never came 

 near the spot again all their lives. 



With such conversation we passed the time till we fell asleep. 

 We rose with the earliest dawn, for the naked Indian feels the 

 chill morning air, and gets up early to renew his fire, and 

 make some mingau to warm himself. Having no coffee, I had 



