THE WILD INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MADEIRA VALLEY. 147 
he invited us to approach and to follow; which wo did, sun-ounded 
by a dense crowd of laughing and chattering squaws and children, 
serious and rospoctablc-looking old men, and young warriors. The 
chieftain raarched slowly ahead, and led us along a narrow but care- 
fully cleaned path, bordered with a vegetation by whose profusion 
we had never before been so impressed. Trunks of gigantic ske, 
graceful palms of every variety, blooming creepers and bromelias, 
orchids of the strangest shapes, and Ught ferns, \nth the warm sun- 
beams breaking through the dense leafage at intervals, and suddenly 
setting off some brilliant flower, some scarlet feather ornament, or the 
white ghttering beads on the brown skins of oiU‘ neiv friends — all 
combined to make it a picture none of us shall ever bo able to forget. 
Our own mpanidons followed, looking not over-confident in their own 
strength, and completed the long cortege, the end of which was lost 
in the darkness of the forest. 
At the distance of about half a mile from the shore wo reached a 
clearing in the Avood, Avith three large cabins closed in on the sides, 
and a smaller open shed, Avhich evidently was the meeting-hall of the 
men. We Avero desired to take seats there in hammocks, not very 
remarkable for their cleanliness, and avc forthAvith began the distri- 
bution of our knives, scissors, fishing-hooks, red cotton handkerchiefs, 
&c. ; in barter for Avhieh we got a good quantity of macacheira and 
Indian corn, half-a-dozon long bows and a bundle of arroAvs.* On the 
Avhole, they did not seem to be as greedy for the produce of our 
iudustiy as we had seen other more civilised tribes, for example, the 
Tapuyos on the Amazon, and the Mojos of Bolivia. They had not yet 
had enough u’on in hand to understand its value thoroughly. Their 
arrow-points of bamboo or hard Avood, and the sharpened edges of a 
river-shell, t eAndently appeared to be quite as effective to them as our 
* Tlie liaitoriTig for a pretty cotton apron tastefully adorned rvitlt feathers was a 
little more difllcult ; yot oiio of our companions at last succeeded in getting one for 
us. Tlie Brown beauty, who had dexterously replaced it with a heKconia leaf, looked 
rather ahnshed on tlie ground, in spite of all the ^mradisaic innocence of the clothing. 
t The Caripuna squaws give birth to their childi’cn before the whole tribe, but 
without the nssiatanco of any one, and themselves cut the navel-string with the 
sharpened edge of a river-shell. The Cayowa women of the South go unattended to 
the wood when thoir houi' of labour ai'rives, and return with the baby, when all is 
over, to discharge their household duties, and to wait upon tlie husb.and, who for a Aimek 
lies motionless in his linmmock, and behaves himself ns if he wore the jiaticnt. On 
mnonstrances or railleries of the white faces, he only answers with a pitying smile. 
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