376 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. 
Chap. YL 
and they do not dwell in villages, like the more ad- 
vanced sections of the Tupi stock ; but each family has 
its own solitary hut. They are quite harmless, do not 
practise tattooing, or perforate their ears and noses in 
any way. Their social condition is of a low type, very 
little removed, indeed, from that of the brutes living in 
the same forests. They do not appear to obey any 
common chief, and I could not make out that they had 
Pajes, or medicine-men, those rudest beginnings of a 
priest class. Symbolical or masked dances, and cere- 
monies in honour of the Jurupari, or demon, customs 
which prevail amongst all the surrounding tribes, are 
unknown to the Caishanas. There is amongst them a 
trace of festival-keeping ; but the only ceremony used 
is the drinking of cashiri beer, and fermented liquors 
made of Indian-corn, bananas, and so forth. These 
affairs, however, are conducted in a degenerate style, for 
they do not drink to intoxication, or sustain the orgies 
for several days and nights in succession, like the Juris, 
Passes, and Tucunas. The men play a musical instru- 
ment, made of pieces of stem of the aiTow-grass cut in 
different lengths and arranged like pan-pipes. With 
this they while away whole hours, lolhng in ragged bast 
hammocks slung in their dark, smoky huts. The Tu- 
nantins people say that the Caishanas have persecuted 
the wild animals and birds to such an extent near their 
settlements that there is now quite a scarcity of animal 
food. If they kill a Toucan, it is considered an import- 
ant event, and the bird is made to serve as a meal for a 
score or more persons. They boil the meat in earthen- 
ware kettles filled with Tucupi sauce, and eat it with 
