i8S2.] 



DEVIL-MUSIC, 



241 



apple tribe ; I bought some dresses and feather ornaments of 

 them ; and fish, mandiocca-cakes, etc., were brought me in 

 considerable quantities, the articles most coveted in return 

 being fish-hooks and red beads, of both of which I had a large 

 stock. Just below the fall, the river is not more than two or 

 three hundred yards wide ; while above, it is half a mile, and 

 contains several large islands. 



The large black pacu was abundant here, and, with other 

 small fish, was generally brought us in sufficient quantity to 

 prevent our recurring to fowls, which are considered by the 

 traders to be the most ordinary fare a man can live on. I 

 now ate for the first time the curious river-weed, called caruru, 

 that grows on the rocks. We tried it as a salad, and also 

 boiled with fish ; and both ways it was excellent ; — boiled, it 

 much resembled spinach. 



Here, too, I first saw and heard the "Juripari," or Devil- 

 music of the Indians. One evening there was a caxiri-drinking; 

 and a little before dusk a sound as of trombones and bassoons 

 was heard coming on the river towards the village, and 

 presently appeared eight Indians, each playing on a great 

 bassoon-looking instrument. They had four pairs, of different 

 sizes, and produced a wild and pleasing sound. They blew 

 them all together, tolerably in concert, to a simple tune, and 

 showed more taste for music than I had yet seen displayed 

 among these people. The instruments are made of bark 

 spirally twisted, and with a mouthpiece of leaves. 



In the evening I went to the malocca, and found two old 

 men playing on the largest of the instruments. They waved 

 them about in a singular manner, vertically and sideways, 

 accompanied by corresponding contortions of the body, and 

 played a long while in a regular tune, accompanying each other 

 very correctly. From the moment the music was first heard, 

 not a female, old or young, was to be seen ; for it is one of the 

 strangest superstitions of the Uaupes Indians, that they con- 

 sider it so dangerous for a woman ever to see one of these 

 instruments, that having done so is punished with death, 

 generally by poison. Even should the view be perfectly 

 accidental, or should there be only a suspicion that the pro- 

 scribed articles have been seen, no mercy is shown ; and it is 

 said that fathers have been the executioners of their own 

 daughters, and husbands of their wives, when such has been 



