382 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. YI. 
skin, the effect of a cutaneous disease very prevalent 
in this part of the country. The face of one old man 
was completly blackened, and looked as though it had 
been smeared with black lead, the blotches having 
coalesced to form one large patch. Others were simply 
mottled ; the black spots were hard and rough, but not 
scaly, and were margined with rings of a colour paler 
than the natural hue of the skin. I had seen many 
Indians and a few half-castes at Tunantins, and after- 
wards saw others at Fonte Boa blotched in the same 
way. The disease would seem to be contagious, for I 
was told that a Portuguese trader became disfigured 
with it after cohabiting some years with an Indian 
woman. It is curious that, although prevalent in 
many places on the Solimoens, no resident of Ega 
exhibited signs of the disease : the early explorers of 
the country, on noticing spotted skins to be very fre- 
quent in certain localities, thought they were peculiar 
to a few tribes of Indians. The younger children in 
these houses on the Sapo were free from spots ; but two 
or three of them, about ten years of age, showed signs 
of their commencement in rounded yellowish patches 
on the skin, and these appeared languid and sickly, 
although the blotched adults seemed not to be affected 
in their general health. A middle-aged half-caste at 
Fonte Boa told me he had cured himself of the disorder 
by strong doses of salsaparilla ; the black patches had 
caused the hair of his beard and eyebrows to fall off, 
but it had grown again since his cure. 
When my tall friend saw me, after dinner, collecting 
insects along the paths near the houses, he approached, 
