OF THE AMAZON, 



333 



Some native tribes exist in the rivers Guama, Capim, and 

 Acarra, just above the city of Para, but I could learn little 

 definite about them. High up the rivers Tocantins and 

 Araguaya, there are numerous tribes of tall well-formed Indians, 

 some of whom I have seen in Para, where they arrive in 

 canoes from the interior. Most of them have enormously 

 elongated ears hanging down on their shoulders, produced 

 probably by weights suspended from the lobe in youth. On 

 the Xingu are many native tribes, some of whom were visited 

 by Prince Adalbert. On the next river, the Tapaj 6z, dwell 

 the Mundrucus, and they extend far into the interior, across to 

 the Madeira and to the river Purus ; they are a very numerous 

 tribe, and portions of them are now civilised. The Maras, 

 another of the populous tribes, are also partly civilised, about 

 the mouths of the Madeira and Rio Negro ; but in the interior, 

 and up the river Purus, many yet live in a totally wild and 

 savage state. 



All along the banks of the main streams of the Amazon, 

 Solimoes, Madeira, and Rio Negro, live Indians of various 

 races, in a semi-civilised state, and with their peculiar habits 

 and languages in a great measure lost. Traces of these pecu- 

 liarities are, however, still to be found, in the painted pottery 

 manufactured at Breves, the elegant calabashes of Montealegre, 

 the curious baskets of some tribes on the Rio Negro, and the 

 calabashes of Ega, always painted in geometrical patterns. 



Commencing near Santarem, and extending among all the 

 half-civilised Indians of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and other 

 rivers, the Lingoa Geral, or general Indian language, is spoken. 

 Near the more populous towns and villages, it is used indis- 

 criminately with the Portuguese ; a little further, it is often the 

 only language known ; and far up in the interior it exists in 

 common with the native language of the tribe to which the in- 

 habitants belong. Thus on the Lower Amazon, all the Indians 

 can speak both Portuguese and Lingoa Geral ; on the Solimoes 

 and Rio Negro, Lingoa Geral alone is generally spoken ; and 

 in the interior, on the lakes and tributaries of the Solimoes, 

 the Miira and Juri tongues are in common use, with the Lingoa 

 Geral as a means of communication with the traders. Near 

 the sources of the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, the Barre and 

 Baniwa languages are those used among the Indians them- 

 selves. 



