Chap. YL 
AN mDIAl!^ ABODE. 
383 
and, taking me by the arm, led me to a mandioca shed, 
making signs, as he could speak very little Tupi, that 
he had something to show. I was not a httle surprised 
when, having mounted the girao, or stage of split palm- 
stems, and taken down an object transfixed to a post, 
he exhibited, with an air of great mystery, a large 
chrysalis suspended from a leaf, which he placed care- 
fully in my hands, saying, " Pana-pana curi " (Tupi : 
butterfly by-and-by). Thus I found that the metamor- 
phoses of insects were known to these savages ; but 
being unable to talk with my new friend, I could not 
ascertain what ideas such a phenomenon had given rise 
to in his mind. The good fellow did not leave my side 
during the remainder of our stay ; but, thinking appa- 
rently that I had come here for information, he put 
himself to considerable trouble to give me all he could. 
He made a quantity of Hypadu powder, that I might 
see the process ; going about the task with much action 
and ceremony, as though he were a conjuror performing 
some wonderful trick. 
We left these friendly people about four o'clock in 
the afternoon, and in descending the umbrageous river, 
stopped, about half-way down, at another house built in 
one of the most charming situations I had yet seen in 
this country. A clean, narrow, sandy pathway led from 
the shady port to the house, through a tract of forest of 
indescribable luxuriance. The buildings stood on an 
eminence in the middle of a level cleared space ; the firm 
sandy soil, smooth as a floor, forming a broad terrace 
around them. The owner was a semi-civilised Indian, 
named Manoel; a dull, taciturn fellow, who, together 
