128 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 
design which I saw, was amongst the Tucunas of the 
Upper Amazons, some of whom have a scroll-like mark 
on each cheek, proceeding from the corner of the 
mouth. The taste, as far as form is concerned, of the 
American Indian would seem to be far less refined 
than that of the Tahitian and New Zealander. 
To amuse the Tushaua, I fetched from the canoe 
the two volumes of Knight's Pictorial Museum of 
Animated Nature. The engravings quite took his 
fancy, and he called his wives, of whom, as I after- 
wards learnt from Aracu, he had three or four, to look 
at them ; one of them was a handsome girl, decorated 
with necklace and bracelets of blue beads. In a short 
time others left their work, and I then had a crowd of 
women and children around me, who all displayed 
unusual curiosity for Indians. It was no light task to 
go through the whole of the illustrations, but they 
would not allow me to miss a page, making me turn 
back when I tried to skip. The pictures of the ele- 
phant, camels, orang-otangs, and tigers, seemed most 
to astonish them ; but they were interested in almost 
everything, down even to the shells and insects. They 
recognised the portraits of the most striking birds 
and mammals which are found in their own country ; 
the jaguar, howling monkeys, parrots, trogons, and 
toucans. The elephant was settled to be a large 
kind of Tapir ; but they made but few remarks, and 
those in the Mundurucu language, of which I under- 
stood only two or three words. Their way of express- 
ing surprise was a clickmg sound made with the teeth, 
similar to the one we ourselves use, or a subdued ex- 
