Chap. IV. 
SPORTS ON THE PRAIA. 
275 
could give him no redress ; he invited the family, how- 
ever, to make their rancho near to ours, and in the end 
gave them the highest price for the surplus oil which 
they manufactured. 
It was not all work at Catua ; indeed there was 
rather more play than work going on. The people 
make a kind of holiday of these occasions. Every fine 
night parties of the younger people assembled on the 
sands, and dancing and games were carried on for hours 
together. But the requisite liveliness for these sports 
was never got up without a good deal of preliminary 
rum-drinking. The girls were so coy that the young 
men could not get sufficient partners for the dances, 
without first subscribing for a few flagons of the needful 
casha§a. The coldness of the shy Indian and Mameluco 
maidens never failed to give way after a little of this 
strong drink, but it was astonishing what an immense 
deal they could take of it in the course of an evening. 
Coyness is not always a sign of innocence in these 
people, for most of the half-caste women on the Upper 
Amazons lead a little career of looseness before they 
marry and settle down for life ; and it is rather re- 
markable that the men do not seem to object much to 
their brides having had a child or two by various 
fathers before marriage. The women do not lose reputa- 
tion unless they become utterly depraved, but in that case 
they are condemned pretty strongly by public opinion. 
Depravity is, however, rare, for all require more or less 
to be wooed before they are won. I did not see 
(although I mixed pretty freely with the young people) 
any breach of propriety on the praias. The merry- 
T 2 
