168 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [January, 
dinner when we were so fortunate as to get any. I bor- 
rowed a table to work at, but, owing to the great inclina- 
tion of the ground, nothing that had not a very broad 
base would stay upon it. The houses here were im- 
bedded in the forest, so that although there were four 
not twenty yards apart, they were not visible from each 
other, the space where the forest had been cut down 
being planted with fruit-trees. 
Only one of the men here could speak Portuguese, 
all the rest using the Indian language, called Lingoa 
Geral, which I found very difficult to get hold of without 
any books, though it is an easy and simple language. 
The word igaripe, applied to all small streams, means 
“ path of the canoe” ; tatatinga, smoke, is literally 
“ white fire.” Many of the words sound like Greek, as 
sapucaia, a fowl ; apegdua, a man. In the names of 
animals the same vowel is often repeated, producing a 
very euphonious effect ; as parawd, a parrot ; maracajd, 
a tiger-cat ; sucuruju, a poisonous snake. My Indian 
boy spoke Lingoa Geral and Portuguese, and so with 
his assistance I got on very well. 
The next morning my hunter arrived, and imme- 
diately went out in his canoe among the islands, where 
the umbrella-birds are found. In the evening after dark 
he returned, bringing one fine specimen. This singular 
bird is about the size of a raven, and is of a similar 
colour, but its feathers have a more scaly appearance, 
from being margined with a different shade of glossy 
blue. It is also allied to the crows in its structure, being 
very similar to them in its feet and bill. On its head it 
bears a crest, different from that of any other bird. It 
