1851.] 
COVEU INDIANS. 
303 
like it very full of forked spines, which require practice 
and delicate handling to extract, or they may produce 
dangerous effects. Several Indians of the Coven nation, 
from considerably higher up the river, were staying 
here. They are distinguished by the ear-lobe being 
pierced with so large a hole as to be plugged with a 
piece of wood the size of a common bottle-cork. When 
we entered their house they set before us, on the ground, 
smoked fish and mandiocca-cake, which Senhor L. in- 
forms me is the general custom higher up the river, 
where the Indians have not lost any of their primitive 
customs by intercourse with the whites. Senhor L. had 
bought a quantity of coroa ’’ (the fibres of a species of 
Bromelia, very like flax), and he set these and several 
other Indians to twist it into thread, which they do by 
rolling it on their breasts, and form a fine well -twisted 
two-strand string, of which fine maqueiras are netted. 
Each one in two or three days produced a ball of string 
of a quarter of a pound weight, and with a small basin 
of salt or half-a-dozen hooks in payment were well 
satisfied. 
On one or two days of bright sunshine, a beautiful 
Bapilio came about the house, settling on the ground in 
moist places : I succeeded in taking two specimens ; it 
is allied to P. Thoas, and will probably prove a new 
species. This was my only capture worth mentioning at 
Jukeira. I had seen the same species at Jauarite, but 
could not take a specimen. I purchased one of the red 
macaws painted as I have mentioned above. Senhor L. 
was here quite a martyr to the chegoes, frequently ex- 
tracting ten or a dozen in a day, which made his feet so 
