104 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. 
Chap. 11. 
sidered quite a wonder as being a bird usually so dif- 
ficult of domestication. I do not know what arts the 
old woman used : Captain Antonio said she fed it with 
her saliva. The chief reason why almost all animals 
become so wonderfully tame in the houses of the 
natives is, I believe, their being treated with uniform 
gentleness, and allowed to run at large about the rooms. 
Our Maracana used to accompany us sometimes in our 
rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. One 
day, in the middle of a long forest road, it was missed, 
having clung probably to an overhanging bough and 
escaped into the thickets without the boy perceiving it. 
Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same 
path, a voice greeted us in a colloquial tone as we 
passed " Maracana ! " We looked about for some time, 
but could not see anything until the word was repeated 
with emphasis " Maracana-a ! " when we espied the 
little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. He 
came down and delivered himself up evidently as much 
rejoiced at the meeting as we were. 
♦ After I had obtained the two men promised, stout 
young Indians, 17 or 18 years of age, one named 
Ricardo and the other Alberto, I paid a second visit to 
the western side of the river in my own canoe ; being 
determined, if possible, to obtain specimens of the White 
Cebus. We crossed over first to the mission village, 
Santa Cruz. It consists of 30 or 40 wretched-looking 
mud huts, closely built together in three straight ugly 
rows on a high gravelly bank. The place was deserted 
with the exception of two or three old men and women 
and a few children. The missionary, Fre Isidro, an 
