OF THE AMAZON. 
491 
also of palm thatch, but so thick and so well bound 
together, that neither arrow nor bullet will penetrate it. 
At the gable-end is a large doorway, about six feet wide 
and eight or ten high : the door is a large palm-mat, 
hung from the top, supported by a pole during the day, 
and let down at night. At the semicircular end is a 
smaller door, which is the private entrance of the Tu- 
shaiia, or chief, to whom this part of the house exclusively 
belongs. The lower part of the gable-end, on each side 
of the entrance, is covered with the thick bark of a tree 
unrolled, and standing vertically. Above this is a loose 
hanging of palm-leaves, between the fissures of which 
the smoke from the numerous fires within finds an 
exit. In some cases this gable-end is much ornamented 
with symmetrical figures painted in colours, as at Ca- 
ruru caxoeira. 
The furniture consists principally of maqueiras, or 
hammocks, made of string, twisted from the fibres of 
the leaves of the Mauritia flewuosa : they are merely an 
open network of parallel threads, crossed by others at 
intervals of a foot ; the loops at each end have a cord 
passed through them, by which they are hung up. The 
Uaupes make great quantities of string of this and other 
fibres, twisting it on their breasts or thighs, with great 
rapidity. 
They have always in their houses a large supply of 
earthen pots, pans, pitchers, and cooking utensils, of va- 
rious sizes, which they make of clay from the river and 
brooks, mixed with the ashes of the caripe bark, and 
baked in a temporary furnace. They have also great 
quantities of small saucer-shaped baskets, called “Ba- 
