THE WILD INDIAN TRIBES OE THi; MADEIRA VALLEY. 
1G7 
sound is said to be ospoeiully disagrcoai)lo to the ears of tlie bad spirit 
Jurupari), Cuyaba danced round his patient, a young Indian, the vdiilo 
smoking a cigar of immense size and of peculiarl}’- miracnlous potency, 
whose smoke he blew into the sufferer’s face and over his naked body. 
Presently he began to stroke and shampoo him from top to toe mth such 
Avild energy, that in a short time the perspiration poured in streams 
down his oato and the patient’s limbs. After he had, by a steady 
course of stroking from the middle to the extremities, pretended to 
concentrate the disease in his fingers and toes, like one of our jugglers, 
he pulled it out Arith a sudden Avrcnch, put it into his oAvn mouth, 
and swalloAAmd it AA’ith fearful grimaces. He then declared the sick 
man to be cured ; and, as the latter Avithout any doubt felt some 
relief after all that kneading and perspiring, the Indian public at 
large aauxs more than e\mr convinced of the efficacy of the huge cigar, 
the maraca, and the magical Avords, and of Cnyaba’s poAver over 
diseases and evil spirits. 
I mentioned the xerimbita as an integral part of Cuyaba’s costume. 
It is a cylinder of from 6 to 6 inches in length, made of the trans- 
parent yelloAA'^ resin of the jatahy-tree, inserted into a thin bamboo 
tube. It is poli.shed aftenvards, pointed at one end, and provided 
Avith a small horizontal piece at the other, which secures it in the 
perforated under lip. 
This barbarous ornament, though in that form and of that material 
we found it only with the Cayowii Indians of the province of Parana, 
must not be omitted in a description of the Amazon basin some 1,200 
miles further oft'; for on the shoi’cs of the Mamore, on a hill called 
the Cerrito, near the site of the former Mission of Exaltacion, 
three AAdiite quartz xerimbitas of about two inches in length have 
been found, identical with some of the same material fished out of the 
Tibagy near Sao Pedro d’ Alcantara. 
On this Cerrito, an elcAuxtion well suited for a settlement, as in times 
of extraordinary high floods it rises like a lonely island out of the Avidc- 
spreading muddy Avaters (and Avhich at present is inhabited by a clever 
and actiAm Brazilian, Senhor Antonio de Barros Cardozo ; to Avhom Ave 
and the leader of a former expc’dition, Lieutenant Gibbon, are alike 
!in oriiameuted Jiaiifllo, filled with pebbles, and always romiiided me ;I beg the 
liai'doii of all good Catholics) of the holy-watei' sjiriuHer of the Roman Church. Like 
that, it is indispensable for tlie c.xpulsion of evU spirits. 
