126 
* 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. 11. 
Tushaua and his people. A few words served to ex- 
plain my errand on the river ; he comprehended at once 
why white men should admire and travel to collect the 
beautiful birds and animals of his country, and neither 
he nor his people spoke a single word about trading, or 
gave us any trouble by coveting the things we had 
brought. He related to me the events of the preced- 
- ing three days. The Pararauates were a tribe of in- 
tractable savages with whom the Mundurucus have been 
always at war. They had no fixed abode, and of course 
made no plantations, but passed their lives like the wild 
beasts, roaming through the forest, guided by the sun : 
wherever they found themselves at night-time there 
they slept, slinging their bast hammocks, which are 
carried by the women, to the trees. They ranged over 
the whole of the interior country, from the head waters 
of the Itapacura (a branch of the Tapajos flowing from 
the east, whose sources lie in about 7^ south latitude) 
to the banks of the Curua (about 3^ south latitude) , 
and from the Mundurucu settlements on the Tapajos 
(55^ west longtitude) to the Pacajaz (50° west longi- 
tude). They cross the streams which lie in their course 
in bark canoes, which they make on reaching the water, 
and cast away after landing on the opposite side. The 
tribe is very numerous, but the different hordes obey 
only their own chieftains. The Mundurucus of the 
upper Tapajos have an expedition on foot against them 
at the present time, and the Tushaua supposed that 
the horde which had just been chased from his maloca 
were fugitives from that direction. There were about 
a hundred of them — including men, women, and chil- 
