MOUM OF THE COTINGA. 
123 
bones scattered about, which the hungry dogs had not been able to devoui* 
only on account of their being so hard, confirmed the truth of their 
statement. As soon as the Takutu begins to fall a few feet, the Manatis 
disappear and make their ^\-ay back to below the rapids of the Rio 
Branco. The search for more abundant food probably brings them to 
the Takutu wliere theiL- favourite grasses, species of J'anicunt, and 
Puspaltdit, groWj in greater abundance. 
oül. After a short rest and a promise from the friendly folk to send 
us daily a supply of milk do\\ n to Cotinga mouth, where we i»ropused 
spending a few days, we took our departure. Aljout o o'clock iu the 
afternpon w^e reached the mouth of the Cotinga, which comes in here 
from the NNW. The Cotinga is, the Christais of the old Portuguese 
nuips and has been generally taken for a tributary of the Zuruma : Imt 
the Macusis and Arekunas on the contrary call the river as far as its 
mouth the Cotinga, and maintain that the Zuruma or Zurung is its 
tributary.* While its mouth has a width of 290, and that of the Takutu 
one of 293 yards, they form when joined a stream 378 yards across. The 
junction lies in lat. 3" 22' N. and in long. 60'' 12' W. We ])itched our 
camp exactly at the junction, and on the western bank of the Cotinga 
where a sandbank stretched its way into the stream. 
302. On the second day after our arrival my brother went in one of 
the lioats down to Fort Sao Joaquim, in order to take the astronomical 
bearings of the junction of the Takutu with the Rio Branco. Fine times 
were the order of the day in camfp because the Indians found many deer 
in the savannah, so much so, that on the very first occasion they went 
hunting, they brought back nine in the course of an hour. Everybody 
who owned hands and knife was now very busily engaged in butchering, 
cooking, smoking, and, most importat of all, devouring the big supply of 
game. In cutting up the venison we found does well advanced in 
pregnancy, wliich helped to strengthen my previously expressed opinion 
that they either throw twice, or else have no particular ])airing season. 
Our camp reseudiled a real butcher's shop, but then our stock did not 
exactly accumulate, because the Indians continued eating day and night 
while N'apoleon excelled himself in a most surprising manner. In conse- 
quence of this continuous slaughter and attracted by the smell and the 
offal, not oidy did the Pirai visit us in countless numbers, but the carrion 
crows covered the neigh lionriny- trees where they greedily waited for the 
bits, not required for the cooking pot, which the Indians threw at them. 
The CJaracara eagle that had joined in with then), was the cause of strife 
for every piece: the Vultiir papa on the other hand was not to hr seen. 
All the wanton tricks that had already been played at Pirara were 
repeated here : one of the gluttonous l)irds would be caught on a fishing 
line l)aited with meat, decorated with a crown and neck-ruffles of wliite 
paper or coloured rag, and like some evil spectre, allowed to fiy back 
among its mates, to be now shunned by them like a leper. 
303. AVe had already struck large swarms of white butterflies, 
flying regularly from S.E. to N.AA'., on our departure from Pirara. 
* This IS the present-day accepted view, and the one followed iii the text. (Eu.) See Sec. 33b- 
