RESIDENCE AT SANTAREM 117 
to be the kissing a small wooden figure of St. 
Sebastian, which was nightly exposed at the foot of 
the altar, during the novenas of Whitsuntide, to 
receive the homage of such as feared the pest and 
trusted to secure the saint's intercession against it, 
including every man, woman, and child in the 
church, with the exception of the estrangeiro, whose 
omission did not fail to be remarked on ; but, as he 
contributed his mite towards the expenses of the 
feast, his crime was considered venial. 
Although Santarem happily escaped the plague, 
for that time, it was for several months unusually 
unhealthy. Almost everybody had attacks of con- 
stipacao and slow fever — I myself did not escape — 
and a good many cases resulted fatally ; while in 
the villages up the Tapajoz ague of the worst kind 
was rife, and above four hundred people fell victims 
to it. I attributed these maladies, in part, to the 
unprecedentedly rapid rise of the rivers, and the 
consequent premature inundation of the lowlands. 
Nearly all the tributaries of the Amazon, but especi- 
ally those of clear water, are either aguish through- 
out their course or have known aguish sites or 
districts. In the case of the Tapajoz, the inhabitants 
ascribe it to the insalubrity of the water at certain 
seasons, and this is doubtless one, although not the 
chief cause. As the annual rise of the Amazon is 
somewhat higher than that of the Tapajoz, and as 
the latter begins to ebb a little earlier, the waters 
of the Tapajoz are dammed back by those of the 
Amazon, and are thus rendered nearly stagnant for 
several weeks, about the time of highest flood and 
beginning of ebb. During that period they become 
unfit for culinary purposes, in consequence of the 
