1851 .] INMATES OF THE MALOCCA. 277 
passage a jetty lustre to the whole of the upper part of 
the roof. 
On entering this house, I was delighted to find myself 
at length in the presence of the true denizens of the 
forest. An old and a young man and two women were 
the only occupiers, the rest being out on their various 
pursuits. The women were absolutely naked ; but on 
the entrance of the brancos ” they slipped on a petti- 
coat, with which, in these lower parts of the river, they 
are generally provided, but never use except on such 
occasions. Their hair was but moderately long, and they 
were without any ornament but strongly knitted garters, 
tightly laced immediately below the knee. 
It was the men however who presented the most 
novel appearance, as different from all the half-civilized 
races among whom I had been so long living, as they 
could be if I had been suddenly transported to another 
quarter of the globe. Then’ hair was carefully parted 
in the middle, combed behind the ears, and tied be- 
hind in a long tail reaching a yard down the back. The 
hair of this tail was firmly bound with a long cord 
formed of monkeys’ hair, very soft and pliable. On 
the top of the head was stuck a comb, ingeniously 
constructed of palm-wood and grass, and ornamented 
with little tufts of toucans’ rump feathers at each end ; 
and the ears were pierced, and a small piece of straw 
stuck in the hole ; altogether giving a most feminine ap- 
pearance to the face, increased by the total absence of 
beard or whiskers, and by the hair of the eyebrows 
being almost entirely plucked out. A small strip of 
‘‘ tururi” (the inner bark of a tree) passed between the 
