356 



ON THE ABORIGINES 



nations of the native American race, known only by the 

 reports of the border tribes, who form the communication 

 between them and the traders of the great rivers. 



One of the best-known and most regularly visited rivers of 

 this great tract is the Purus, whose mouth is a short distance 

 above the Rio Negro, but whose sources a three months' 

 voyage does not reach. Of the Indians found on the banks 

 of this river I have been able to get some information. 



Five tribes are met with by the traders : — 



1. Muras, from the mouth to sixteen days' voyage up. 



2. Purupurus, from thence to about thirty days' voyage up. 



3. Catauxis, in the district of the Purupurus, but in the 

 igaripes and lakes inland. 



4. Jamamaris, inland on the west bank. 



5. Jubiris, on the river-banks above the Purupurds. 



The Muras are rather a tall race, have a good deal of beard 

 for Indians, and the hair of the head is slightly crisp and 

 wavy. They used formerly to go naked, but now the men 

 all wear trousers and shirts, and the women petticoats. Their 

 houses are grouped together in small villages, and are scarcely 

 ever more than a roof supported on posts ; very rarely do they 

 take the trouble to build any walls. They make no hammocks, 

 but hang up three bands of a bark called '^invi'ra," on which 

 they sleep ; but the more civilised now purchase of the traders 

 hammocks made by other Indians. They practise scarcely 

 any cultivation, except sometimes a little mandiocca, but 

 generally live on wild fruits, and abundance of fish and game : 

 their food is entirely produced by the river, consisting of the 

 Manatus, or cow-fish, which is as good as beef, turtles, and 

 various kinds of fish, all of which are in great abundance, so 

 that the traders say there are no people who live so well as 

 the Muras ; they have therefore no occasion for gravatanas, 

 which they do not make, but have a great variety of bows and 

 arrows and harpoons, and construct very good canoes. They 

 now all cut their hair ; the old men have a large hole in their 

 lower lip filled up with a piece of wood, but this custom is 

 now disused= Each man has two or three wives, but there 

 is no ceremony of marriage ; and they bury their dead some- 

 times in the house, but more commonly outside, and put all 

 the goods of the deceased upon his grave. The women use 

 necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the men tie the seeds 



