234 
EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 
shade of trees. Two smaller buildings, detached from 
the shed and having mud-walls with low doorways, 
contained apparently the sleeping apartment of differ- 
ent members of the large household. A small mill for 
grinding sugar-cane, having two cylinders of hard 
notched wood ; wooden troughs, and kettles for boiling 
the guardpa (cane juice), to make treacle, stood 
under a separate shed, and near it was a large en- 
closed mud-house for poultry. There was another hut 
and shed a short distance off, inhabited by a family 
dependent on Pedro, and a narrow pathway through 
the luxuriant woods led to more dwellings of the same 
kind. There was an abundance of fruit trees around 
the place, including the never-failing banana, with its 
long, broad, soft green leaf-blades, and groups of full- 
grown Pupunhas, or peach palms. There was also a 
large number of cotton and coffee trees. Amongst the 
utensils I noticed baskets of different shapes, made of 
flattened maranta stalks, and dyed various colours. 
The making of these is an original art of the Passes, 
but I believe it is also practised by other tribes, for I 
saw several in the houses of semi-civilised Indians on 
the Tapajos. 
There were only three persons in the house besides the 
old couple, thie rest of the people being absent ; several 
came in, however, in the course of the day. One was 
a daughter of Pedro's, who had an oval tattooed spot 
over her mouth ; the second was a young grandson ; and 
the third the son-in-law from Ega, Cardozo's compadre. 
The old woman was occupied, when we entered, in dis- 
tilling spirits from cara, an eatable root similar to the 
