148 THE AMAZON AND JIADEIRA RIVERS. 
knives ;* and if they graciously accej)ted our glittering stoelu'are, it 
seemed to ho more oxit of curiosity than anylhiug else. Tory dilfereut 
mas it mith the glass heads, Avhich tliey prized highly, and mhidi 
seemed to be a sort of money with tliciu, and the place of which, 
before their intercourse with the white race, is said to have been 
suj^plied by the small hard seeds of certain plants. 
Besides the hammocks there was no “ furniture ” whatever in the 
Parliament-house, save some long thin drums, — for their festivals, 
probably, — a few pretty baskets of palm-leaves with feather ornaments 
in them, and some bows and arroAvs suspended to the beams ; the 
former of the dark wood of the paxiuba-palrn, the latter of the light 
stems of the uba reed. Some slight cavities in the ground, Avith flat 
stones in the middle of each, shoAved us clearly that the Caripunas 
followed the custom of many other tribes, of burying their Avan-iors in 
large earthen urns (or igaejabas) in the cottages. We counted flve of 
them; and it Avas easy to see that soon the burial-ground A\-ould have 
to be enlarged, or the Avhole tribe Avould require to shift, if they Avere 
all to have the same honours. The latter course will probably bo i 
adojjted, as by stress of the scarcity of the game they scare aAAaiy | 
the Indians are compelled to change their abodes from time to time. 
The Coroados, in fact, do so every fcAV years, and burn down their j 
light sheds on account of the vermin. i 
As the iga^abas Avere barely coAmred Avith earth, avc suppose that 
they contained only the clean bones of the dead. We could not, of 
course, think of excavating one of them or even of looking closer at 
the tombs ; the more so as a characteristic incident revealed to us the 
degree of respect and awe Avith which they regarded AA'hatcver has to 
do Avith their dead. I asked one of the younger Indians to give me, 
in exchange for a pair of scissors, a very queer-looking instrument, 
consisting of a thin board of half a yard length, Avhich, AA'heu AA^hirled 
about by a shmder cord draAvn through the middle, must give a 
AA'hizzing sound. The boy, immediately turning round to one of the 
elder Indians, explained to him my request, in a tone Avhose excitement 
On closer acquaintance, however, they used to say that it is necessary for the welfare of 
the child, who would infallibly full ill if the father did not observe a strict regimen. 
* The Coroados fasten old knife-blades at the end of the arrows they use for 
tiger, tapir, and wild-hog shooting. Eornierly they had flint points, quite identical 
with those found in the Pfahlbauten. Hundreds of them are sometimes discovered 
togctlier on the sites of former settlements. 
