402 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap VI. 
idle and debauched than other Indians belonging to 
the superior tribes. They are not so warlike and loyal 
as the Mundurucus, although resembling them in many 
respects, nor have they the slender figures, dignified 
mien, and gentle disposition of the Passes ; there are, 
however, no trenchant points of difference to distinguish 
them from these highest of all the tribes. Both men 
and women are tattooed, the pattern being sometimes a 
scroll on each cheek, but generally rows of short straight 
lines on the face. Most of the older people wear 
bracelets, anklets and garters of tapir-hide or tough 
bark ; in their homes they wear no other dress except 
on festival days, when they ornament themselves with 
feathers or masked cloaks made of the inner bark of a 
tree. They were very shy when I made my first visits 
to their habitations in the forest, all scampering off to 
the thicket when I approached, but on subsequent days 
they became more familiar, and I found them a harm- 
less, good-natured people. 
A great part of the horde living at the first Maloca 
or village dwell in a common habitation, a large oblong 
hut built and arranged inside with such a disregard 
of all symmetry, that it appeared as though constructed 
by a number of hands each working independently, 
stretching a rafter or fitting in a piece of thatch, with- 
out reference to what his fellow-labourers were doing. 
The walls as well as the roof are covered with thatch 
of palm-leaves ; each piece consisting of leaflets plaited 
and attached in a row to a lath many feet in length. 
Strong upright posts support the roof, hammocks being 
slung between them, leaving a free space for passage 
