OF THE AMAZON. 
479 
Para, where they arrive in canoes from the interior. Most 
of them have enormously elongated ears hanging down 
on their shoulders, produced probably by weights sus- 
pended from the lobe in youth. On the Xingu are 
many native tribes, some of whom were visited by Prince 
Adalbert. On the next river, the Tapajoz, dwell the 
Mundrucus, and they extend far into the interior, across 
to the Madeira and to the river Purus ; they are a very 
numerous tribe, and portions of them are now civilized. 
The Muras, another of the populous tribes, are also 
partly civilized, about the mouths of the Madeira and 
Rio Negro ; but in the interior, and up the river Purus, 
many yet live in a totally wild and savage state. 
All along the banks of the main streams of the Ama- 
zon, Solimoes, Madeira, and Rio Negro, live Indians of 
various races, in a semi-civilized state, and with their pecu- 
liar habits and languages in a great measure lost. Traces 
of these peculiarities are however still to be found, in 
the painted pottery manufactured at Breves, the elegant 
calabashes of Montealegre, the curious baskets of some 
tribes on the Rio Negro, and the calabashes of Ega, 
always painted in geometrical patterns. 
Commencing near Santarem, and extending among 
all the half-civilized Indians of the Amazon, Rio Negro, 
and other rivers, the Lingoa Geral, or general Indian 
language, is spoken. Near the more populous towns 
and villages, it is used indiscriminately with the Portu- 
guese ; a little further, it is often the only language 
known ; and far up in the interior it exists in common 
with the native language of the tribe to which the in- 
habitants belong. Thus on the Lower Amazon, all the 
