400 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. 
Chap. YI. 
cold water flowing at the bottom. At midday the 
vertical sun penetrates into the gloomy depths of this 
romantic spot, lighting up the leafy banks of the 
rivulet and its clean sandy margins, where numbers of 
scarlet, green, and black tanagers and brightly-coloured 
butterflies sport about in the stray beams. Sparkling 
brooks, large and small, traverse the glorious forest 
in almost every direction, and one is constantly meet- 
ing, whilst rambling through the thickets, with trick- 
ling rills and bubbling springs, so well-provided is the 
country with moisture. Some of the rivulets flow over 
a sandy and pebbly bed, and the banks of all are clothed 
with the most magnificent vegetation conceivable. I 
had the almost daily habit, in my solitary walks, of 
resting on the clean banks of these swift-flowing 
streams, and bathing for an hour at a time in their 
bracing waters ; hours which now remain amongst my 
most pleasant memories. The broad forest roads con- 
tinue, as I was told, a distance of several days' journey 
into the interior, which is peopled by Tucunas and 
other Indians, living in scattered houses and villages 
nearly in their primitive state, the nearest village lying 
about six miles from St. Paulo. The banks of all the 
streams are dotted with palm-thatched dwellings of 
Tucunas, all half-buried in the leafy wilderness, the 
scattered families having chosen the coolest and shadiest 
nooks for their abodes. 
I frequently heard in the neighbourhood of these 
huts, the ''realejo" or organ bird (Cyphorhinus can- 
tans), the most remarkable songster, by far, of the 
Amazonian forests. When its singular notes strike the 
