214 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [November, 
but no windows. Near one of these I placed my bird- 
box, to serve as a table, and on the other side swung my 
hammock. We then took a little walk, to look about 
us. Paths led to the different cottages, in which were ^ 
large families of naked childreiij and their almost naked ■ 
parents. Most of the houses had no walls, but were 
mere thatched sheds supported on posts, and with some- ^ 
times a small room enclosed with a palm-leaf fence, to V 
make a sleeping apartment. There were several young 
boys here of from ten to fifteen years of age, who were 
my constant attendants when I went into the forest. ^ 
None of them could speak a single word of Portuguese, 
so I had to make use of my slender stock of Lingoa 
Geral. But Indian boys are not great talkers, and a few 
monosyllables would generally suffice for our communi- 
cations. One or two of them had blow-pipes, and shot 
numbers of small birds for me, while others would creep 
along by my side and silently point out birds, or small | 
animals, before I could catch sight of them. When I | 
fired, and, as was often the case, the bird flew away ® 
wounded, and then fell far off in the forest, they would 
bound away after it, and seldom search in vain. Even 
a little humming-bird, falling in a dense thicket of 1 
creepers and dead leaves, which I should have given up 
looking for in despair, was always found by them. »' 
One day I accompanied the Indian, with whom I « 
lived, into the forest, to get stems for a blow-pipe. We ^ 
went, about a mile off, to a place where numerous small m 
palms were growing ; they were the Iriartea seti^eraWt 
of Martins, from ten to fift een feet high, and varying SI ' 
from the thickness of one’s finger, to two inches inl| 
