502 
ON THE ABORIGINES 
ticular kind of game for the future. An Indian, who was 
one of my hunters, caught a fine cock of the rock, and 
gave it to his wife to feed, but the poor woman was 
obliged to live herself on cassava-bread and fruits, and 
abstain entirely from all animal food, peppers, and salt, 
which it was believed would cause the bird to die ; not- 
withstanding all precautions however the bird did die, 
and the woman got a beating from her husband, be- 
cause he thought she had not been sufficiently rigid in 
her abstinence from the prohibited articles. 
Most of these peculiar practices and superstitions are 
retained with much tenacity, even by those Indians who 
are nominally civilized and Christian, and many of them 
have been even adopted by the Europeans resident in 
the country : there are actually Portuguese in the Rio 
Negro who fear the power of the Indian pages, and who 
fully believe and act on all the Indian superstitions re- 
specting women. 
The river Uaupes is the channel by which European 
manufactures find their way into the extensive and un- 
known regions between the Rio Guaviare on the one 
side, and the Japura on the other. About a thousand 
pounds’ worth of goods enter the Uaupes yearly, mostly 
in axes, cutlasses, knives, fish-hooks, arrow-heads, salt, 
mirrors, beads, and a few cottons. 
The articles given in exchange are salsaparilha, pitch, 
farinha, string, hammocks, and Indian stools, baskets, 
feather ornaments, and curiosities. The salsaparilha is 
by far the most valuable product, and is the only one ex- 
ported. Great quantities of articles of European ma- 
nufacture are exchanged by the Indians with those of 
