ON THE ABORIGINES 



Others, near the sources of the Tapajoz, make the girls 

 undergo the same cruel initiation as has been already described 

 as common among the Uaupes and Isanna Indians. 



On the north banks of the Rio Negro are many uncivilised 

 tribes, very little known. 



On the south banks, the Manaos were formerly a very 

 numerous nation. It appears to have been from these tribes 

 that the various accounts of imaginary wealth prevalent soon 

 after the discovery of America were derived ; .the whole of them 

 are now civilised, and their blood mingles with that of some of 

 the best families in the Province of Para ; their language is 

 said still to exist, and to be spoken by many old persons, but 

 I was never fortunate enough to meet with any one under- 

 standing it. 



One of the singular facts connected with these Indians of 

 the Amazon valley, is the resemblance which exists between 

 some of their customs, and those of nations most remote from 

 them. The gravatana, or blow-pipe, reappears in the sumpitan 

 of Borneo ; the great houses of the Uaupes closely resemble 

 those of the Dyaks of the same country ; while many small 

 baskets and bamboo-boxes, from Borneo and New Guinea, 

 are so similar in their form and construction to those of the 

 Amazon, that they would be supposed to belong to adjoining 

 tribes. Then again the Mundruciis, like the Dyaks, take the 

 heads of their enemies, smoke-dry them with equal care, 

 preserving the skin and hair entire, and hang them up around 

 their houses. In Australia the throwing-stick is used ; and, 

 on a remote branch of the Amazon, we see a tribe of Indians 

 differing from all around them, in substituting for the bow 

 a weapon only found in such a remote portion of the earth, 

 among a people differing from them in almost every physical 

 character. 



It will be necessary to obtain much more information on 

 this subject, before we can venture to decide whether such 

 similarities show any remote connection between these nations, 

 or are mere accidental coincidences, produced by the same 

 wants, acting upon people subject to the same conditions of 

 climate and in an equally low state of civilisation ; and it 

 offers additional matter for the wide-spreading speculations of 

 the ethnographer. 



The main feature in the personal character of the Indians 



