i6 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
at other times every Wednesday and Saturday 
morning. On Saturday evening nearly the whole 
population assists at vespers — the Litany to the 
Virgin — when the altars are decked with small 
vases filled with flowers of Poinciaita pulcherri7na 
(called Uaita-sissa, i.e. swimming flower), and at the 
conclusion the patron saint, mounted on a stage, is 
carried in procession round the streets, the Padre 
and his people chanting as they march. After 
each mass in the morning, and after the Ave Maria 
in the evening, the chief officials of the town pre- 
sent themselves to the Padre to receive his orders, 
and he is fortunately not trammelled by the presence 
of any interested white man under the name of 
Gubernador, this office being filled by an intelligent 
old Indian.^ His rule is strict without being severe, 
and I have nowhere seen the Indians so docile. 
True, they are a rather sluggish race — poor oars- 
men — and many of them have the skin disfigured 
by black and red blotches from the leprous disease 
called purupurii in Brazil. 
Outside the pueblo is the cemetery, surrounded 
by an adobe wall, with gates under a porch. It is 
usual to bury a man in his old canoe, cut up into 
something like a coffin. The houses at Yurima- 
guas, as in most other places on the rivers of 
Mavnas, are built of Cafia brava — a stout reed — 
stuck close together in the ground and crossed by 
others near the top and bottom. The doors are 
made of the same material. 
Stages (called barbacoas), on which the inmates 
^ The officials of Yurimaguas, in the order of their rank, are Curaca, 
Capitan, Alferes, Alcaide, Procurador, Regidor, Alguazil major, and two 
Alguaziles minor — in all nine. 
