EETUEN TO MANAOS. 



273 



rose-colored clouds were fading into soft masses of white 

 and ashen gray, and moonlight was taking the place of 

 sunset. As we went up the green slope to the .sitio, a 

 dance on the grass was proposed, and the Indian girls 

 formed a quadrille ; for thus much of civilization has 

 crept into their native manners, though they throw into 

 it so much of their own characteristic movements, that 

 it loses something of its conventional aspect. Then we 

 returned to the house, where the dancing and singing 

 were renewed, while here and there groups sat about on 

 the ground laughing and talking, the women smoking 

 with as much enjoyment as the men. Smoking is almost 

 universal among the common women here, yet is not con- 

 fined to the lower classes. Many a Senhora (at least in 

 this part of Brazil, for we must distinguish between the 

 civilization on the banks of the Amazons and in the in- 

 terior and that in the cities along the coast) enjoys her 

 pipe, while she lounges in her hammock through the heat 

 of the day. 



October 30^A. — Yesterday our party broke up. The 

 Indian women came to bid us good-by after breakfast, 

 and dispersed to their several homes, going off in various 

 directions through the forest-paths in little groups, their 

 babies, of whom there were a goodly number, astride on 

 their hips, as usual, and the older children following. 

 Mr. Agassiz passed the morning in packing and arranging 

 his fishes, having collected in those two days more than 

 seventy new species.* His studies have been the subject 



* I was indebted to the President for many valuable specimens on this 

 excursion, many of the birds and fishes brought in by the Indians for the 

 table being turned over to the scientific collections. My young friends 

 Dexter and James were also efiicient, passing always a part of the day in 

 the woods, and assisting me greatly in the preparation and preservation of the 

 12* E 



