230 



A JOURNEY m BRAZIL. 



provide against the rising of the river in the rainy season. 

 In front of the house, just on the edge of the bank, were 

 several large, open, thatched sheds, used as kitchen and 

 living-rooms for the negroes and Indians employed in the 

 preparation of the fish. In one of these rooms were several 

 Indian women who looked very ill. We were told they had 

 been there for two months, and they were worn to skin and 

 bone with intermittent fever. Major Coutinho said they 

 were, no doubt, suffering in part from the habit so preva- 

 lent among these people of eating clay and dirt, for which 

 they have a morbid love. They were wild-looking crea- 

 tures, lying in their hammocks or squatting on the ground, 

 often without any clothes, and moaning as if in pain. They 

 were from the forest, and spoke no Portuguese. 



We were received most cordially by the ladies of the 

 family, who had gone up to the lodge the day before, and 

 were offered the refreshment of a hammock, the first act 

 of hospitality in this country, when one arrives from any 

 distance. After this followed an excellent breakfast of the 

 fresh fish we had brought with us, cooked in a variety of 

 ways, broiled, fried, and boiled. The repast was none the 

 less appetizing that it was served in picnic fashion, the cloth 

 being laid on the floor, upon one of the large palm-mats, 

 much in use here to spread over the uncarpeted brick floors 

 or under the hammocks. For several hours after breakfast 

 the heat was intense, and we could do little but rest in the 

 shade, though Mr. Agassiz, who works at all hours if speci- 

 mens are on hand, was busy in making skeletons of some 

 fish too large to be preserved in alcohol. Towards evening 

 it grew cooler, and we walked in the banana plantation near 

 the house, and sat under an immense gourd-tree on the 

 bank, which made a deep shade ; for it was clothed not only 



