OF THE AMAZON. 
513 
have pages, whom they believe to have much skill, and 
are afraid of, and pay well. They were formerly very 
warlike, and made many attacks upon the Europeans, but 
are now much more peaceful ; and are the most skilful 
of all Indians in shooting turtles and fish, and in catch- 
ing the cow-fish. They still use their own language 
among themselves, though they also understand the 
Lingoa Geral. The white traders obtain from them 
salsaparilha, oil from turtles’ eggs and the cow-fish. 
Brazil-nuts, and estopa, which is the bark of the young 
Brazil-nut tree {BertJioUetia excelso), used extensively for 
caulking canoes ; and pay them in cotton goods, har- 
poon and arrow-heads, hooks, beads, knives, cutlasses, etc. 
The next tribe, the Purupurtis, are in many respects 
very peculiar, and differ remarkably in their habits from 
any other nation we have yet described. They call them- 
selves Pamouiris, but are always called by the Brazilians 
Purupurus, a name also applied to a peculiar disease, 
with which they are almost all afflicted : this consists in 
the body being spotted and blotched with white, brown, 
or nearly black patches, of irregular size and shape, and 
having a very disagreeable appearance ; when young, 
their skins are clear, but as they grow up, they invari- 
ably become more or less spotted. Other Indians are 
sometimes seen afflicted in this manner, and they are 
then said to have the Purupuru; though it does not 
appear whether the disease is called after the tribe of 
Indians who are most subject to it, or the Indians after 
the disease. Some say that the word is Portuguese, but 
this seems to be a mistake. 
The Purupurus, men and women, go perfectly naked ; 
L L 
