i86 



TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO, 



[April, 



axes, in the same proportion. On the way, I got these Tomo 

 Indians to give me a vocabulary of their language, which differs 

 from that of the villages above and below them. We paddled 

 by day, and floated down by night; and as the current was 

 now tremendous, we got on so quickly, that in three days we 

 reached Marabitanas, a distance which had taken us nine in 

 going up. 



Here I stayed a week with the Commandante, who had 

 invited me when at Guia. I, however, did little in the collect- 

 ing way : there were no paths in the forest, and no insects, and 

 very few birds worth shooting. I obtained some very curious 

 half-spiny rodent animals, and a pretty white-marked bird, 

 allied to the starlings, which appears here only once a year in 

 flocks, and is called " Ciuci uera " (the star-bird). 



The inhabitants of Marabitanas are celebrated for their 

 festas : their lives are spent, half at their festas, and the other 

 half in preparing for them. They consume immense quantities 

 of raw spirit, distilled from cane-juice and from the mandiocca : 

 at a festa which took place while I was here, there was about a 

 hogshead of strong spirit consumed, all drunk raw. In every 

 house, where the dancing takes place, there are three or four 

 persons constantly going round with a bottle and glass, and no 

 one is expected ever to refuse ; they keep on the whole night, 

 and the moment you have tasted one glass, another succeeds, 

 and you must at least take a sip of it. The Indians empty the 

 glass every time ; and this continues for two or three days. 

 When all is finished, the inhabitants return to their sitios, and 

 commence the preparation of a fresh lot of spirit for the next 

 occasion. 



About a fortnight before each festa — which is always on a 

 Saint's day of the Roman Catholic Church — a party of ten or 

 a dozen of the inhabitants go round, in a canoe, to all the sitios 

 and Indian villages within fifty or a hundred miles, carrying 

 the image of the saint, flags, and music. They are entertained 

 at every house, the saint is kissed, and presents are made for 

 the feast ; one gives a fowl, another some eggs or a bunch of 

 plantains, another a few coppers. The live animals are fre- 

 quently promised beforehand for a particular saint ; and often, 

 when I have wanted to buy some provisions, I have been 

 assured that "that is St. John's pig,'' or that "those fowls 

 belong to the Holy Ghost." 



