Chap. IV. 
A DINNER PARTY. 
239 
undertaken in search of the tree in Guiana, has been 
given by Sir Robert Schomburgk.* 
When we returned to the house after mid-day, Car- 
dozo was still sipping cauim, and now looked exceedingly 
merry. It was fearfully hot : the good fellow sat in 
his hammock with a cuya full of grog in his hands ; 
his broad honest face all of a glow, and the perspira- 
tion streaming down his uncovered breast, the unbut- 
toned shirt having slipped half-way over his broad 
shoulders. Pedro-uassu had not drunk much ; he was 
noted, as I afterwards learnt, for his temperance. But 
he was standing up as I had left him two hours previous, 
talking to Cardozo in the same monotonous tones, the 
conversation apparently not having flagged all the time. 
I had never heard so much talking amongst Indians. 
The widower was asleep : the stirring, managing old 
lady with her daughter were preparing dinner. This, 
which was ready soon after I entered, consisted of 
boiled fowls and rice, seasoned with large green peppers 
and lemon juice, and piles of new, fragrant farinha and 
raw bananas. It was served on plates of English ma- 
nufacture on a tupe, or large plaited rush mat, such as 
is made by the natives pretty generally on the Amazons; 
Three or four other Indians, men and women of middle 
age, now made their appearance, and joined in the 
meal. We all sat round on the floor : the women, ac- 
cording to custom, not eating until after the men had 
done. Before sitting down, our host apologised in his 
usual quiet, courteous manner for not having knives 
and forks ; Cardozo and I ate by the aid of wooden 
* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. vii. p. 411. 
