Chap. VI . 
TUCtJNAS. 
401 
ear for the first time, the impression cannot be resisted 
that they are produced by a human voice. Some musical 
boy must be gathering fruit in the thickets, and is 
sinmig: a few notes to cheer himself The tones become 
more fluty and plaintive ; they are now those of a flage- 
olet, and notwithstanding the utter impossibility of the 
thing, one is for the moment convinced that some- 
body is playing that instrument. No bird is to be 
seen, however closely the surrounding trees and bushes 
may be scanned, and yet the voice seems to come from 
the thicket close to one's ears. The ending of the song is 
rather disappointing. It begins with a few very slow and 
mellow notes, following each other like the commence- 
ment of an air ; one listens expecting to hear a com- 
plete strain, but an abrupt pause occurs, and then the 
song breaks down, finishing with a number of clicking 
unmusical sounds like a piping barrel-organ out of wind 
and tune. I never heard the bird on the Lower Ama- 
zons, and very rarely heard it even at Ega ; it is the 
only songster which makes an impression on the natives, 
who sometimes rest their paddles whilst travelling in 
their small canoes along the shady by-streams, as if 
struck by the mysterious sounds. 
The Tucuna Indians are a tribe resembling much 
the Shumanas, Passes, Juris, and Mauhes in their phy- 
sical appearance and customs. They lead like those 
tribes a settled agricultural life, each horde obeying a 
chief of more or less influence, according to his energy 
and ambition, and possessing its paje or medicine-man, 
who fosters its superstitions ; but they are much more 
VOL. II. D D 
