378 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. 
Chap. VI. 
over the country, and are connected together by no 
other ties than a common name and the tradition of 
general enmity towards the hordes bearing the name of 
the other nation. Moreover, hordes belonging to the 
same tribe or nation sometimes quarrel with each other.. 
These petty wars originate in this fashion : a member of 
a family falls ill, and his or her relations, or the rest of 
the horde, get hold of the idea that the Paje of a neigh- 
bouring horde has caused the illness by witchcraft ; all 
then assemble for a grand drinking-bout, during which 
they excite each other by reciting their wrongs. The 
armed men meet on the following day, and march by 
intricate paths or circuitous streams, so as to take their 
enemies by surprise, and then pounce upon them with 
loud shouts, killing all they can, and burning their huts 
to the ground. 
Novemher SOth. — I left Tunantins in a trading 
schooner of eighty tons burthen belonging to Senhor 
Batalha, a tradesman of Ega, which had been out all 
the summer collecting produce, and was commanded 
by a friend of mine, a young Paraense, named Fran- 
cisco Eaiol. We arrived, on the 3rd of December, at 
the mouth of the Jutahi, a considerable stream about 
half a mile broad, and flowing with a very sluggish 
current. This is one of a series of six rivers, from 400 
to 1000 miles in length, which flow from the south- 
west through unknown lands lying between Bolivia and 
the Upper Amazons, and enter this latter river between 
the Madeira and the Ucayali. The sources of none 
of them are known. The longest of the six is the 
