288 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. 
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This house was a noble building of its kind, being one 
hundred and fifteen feet long, seventy-five wide, and 
about twenty-five feet high, the roof and upper timbers 
being black as jet with the smokes of many years. 
There were besides about a dozen private cottages, form- 
ing a small village. Scattered around were immense 
numbers of the Pupunha Palm {Guilielma speciosa), the 
fruit of which forms an important part of the food of 
these people during the season ; it was now just be- 
ginning to ripen. The Tushaua was rather a respectable- 
looking man, the possessor of a pair of trowsers and 
a shirt, which he puts on in honour of white visitors. 
Senhor L. however says he is one of the greatest rogues 
on the river, and will not trust him, as he does most of 
♦ 
the other Indians, with goods beforehand. He rejoices 
in the name of Galistro, and pleased me much by his 
benevolent countenance and quiet dignified manner. He 
is said to be the possessor of great riches in the way of 
on^as’ teeth and feathers, the result of his wars upon the 
Macus and other tribes of the tributary rivers ; but these 
he will not show to the whites, for fear of being made 
to sell them. Behind the malocca I was pleased to see 
a fine broad path, leading into the forest to the several 
mandiocca rhossas. The next morning early I went with 
my net to explore it, and found it promise pretty well 
for insects, considering the season. I was greatly de-^^ 
lighted at meeting in it the lovely clear-winged butterfly 
allied to the Esmeralda, that I had taken so sparingly at 
Javita; and I also took a specimen of another of the 
same genus, quite new to me. A plain-coloured 
that I had first met with at Jukeira, was here also very 
abundant. 
If: 
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