I85i.] INMATES OF THE MALOCCA. 191 



such occasions. Their hair was but moderately long, and they 

 were without any ornament but strongly knitted garters, tightly 

 laced immediately below the knee. 



It was the men, however, who presented the most novel 

 appearance, as different from all the half-civilised races among 

 whom I had been so long living, as they could be if I had been 

 suddenly transported to another quarter of the globe. Their 

 hair was carefully parted in the middle, combed behind the 

 ears, and tied behind in a long tail reaching a yard down the 

 back. The hair of this tail was firmly bound with a long cord 

 formed of monkeys' hair, very soft and pliable. On the top 

 of the head was stuck a comb, ingeniously constructed of 

 palm-wood and grass, and ornamented with little tufts of 

 toucans' rump feathers at each end ; and the ears were pierced, 

 and a small piece of straw stuck in the hole ; altogether giving 

 a most feminine appearance to the face, increased by the 

 total absence of beard or whiskers, and by the hair of the 

 eyebrows being almost entirely plucked out. A small strip 

 of "tururi" (the inner bark of a tree) passed between the 

 legs, and secured to a string round the waist, with a pair of 

 knitted garters, constituted their simple dress. 



The young man was lazily swinging in a maqueira, but dis- 

 appeared soon after we entered ; the elder one was engaged 

 making one of the flat hollow baskets, a manufacture peculiar to 

 this district. He continued quietly at his occupation, answering 

 the questions Senhor L. put to him about the rest of the 

 inhabitants in a very imperfect " Lingoa Geral," which language 

 is comparatively little known in this river, and that only in the 

 lower and more frequented parts. As we wanted to procure 

 one or two men to go with us, we determined to stay here for the 

 night. We succeeded in purchasing for a few fish-hooks some 

 fresh fish, which another Indian brought in : and then prepared 

 our dinner and coffee, and brought our maqueiras up to the 

 house, hanging them in the middle aisle, to pass the night 

 there. About dusk many more Indians, male and female, 

 arrived ; fires were lighted in the several compartments, pots 

 put on with fish or game for supper, and fresh mandiocca 

 cakes made. I now saw several of the men with their most 

 peculiar and valued ornament — a cylindrical, opaque, white 

 stone, looking like marble, but which is really quartz imperfectly 

 crystallized. These stones are from four to eight inches long, 



13 



