185L] 
A NIGHT IN THE MALOCCA. 
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said to use is the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large 
wild plantain, triturating with fine sand and a little 
water; and I have no doubt it is, as it is said to be, a 
labour of years. Yet it must take a much longer time 
to pierce that which the Tushaua wears as the symbol 
of his authority, for it is generally of the largest size, and 
is worn transversely across the breast, for which purpose 
the hole is bored lengthways from one end to the other, 
an operation which I was informed sometimes occupies 
two lives. The stones themselves are procured from 
a great distance up the river, probably from near its 
sources at the base of the Andes; they are therefore 
highly valued, and it is seldom the owners can be in- 
duced to part with them, the chiefs scarcely ever. I 
here purchased a club of hard red wood for a small 
mirror, a comb for half-a-dozen small fish-hooks, and 
some other trifling articles. 
A portion only of the inhabitants arrived that night, 
as when traders come they are afraid of being compelled 
to go with them, and so hide themselves. Many of the 
worst characters in the Rio Negro come to trade in this 
river, force the Indians, by threats of shooting them, 
into their canoes, and sometimes even do not scruple 
to carry their threats into execution, they being here 
quite out of reach of even that minute portion of the law 
which still struggles for existence in the Rip Negro. 
We passed the night in the malocca, surrounded by 
the naked Indians hanging round their fires, which sent 
a fitful light up into the dark smoke-filled roof. A 
torrent of rain poured without, and I could not help ad- 
miring the degree of sociality and comfort in numerous 
