OF THE AMAZON. 
517 
have each one wife, and each village its chief. Cravo or 
wild nutmegs, and farinha, are the principal articles of 
their trade ; and they receive in exchange cotton cloth, 
iron goods, salt, beads, etc. 
In the Rio Branco are numerous tribes, and some of 
them are said to practise circumcision. 
Others, near the sources of the Tapajoz, make the girls 
undergo the same cruel initiation as has been already 
described as common among the Uaupes and Isanna 
Indians. 
On the north banks of the Rio Negro are many un- 
civilized tribes, very little known. 
On the south banks, the Manaos were formerly a very 
numerous nation. It appears to have been these tribes 
who gave rise to the various accounts of imaginary wealth 
prevalent soon after the discovery of America : the whole 
of them are now civilized, and their blood mingles with 
that of some of the best families in the Province of Para : 
their language is said still to exist, and to be spoken 
by many old persons, but I was never fortunate enough 
to meet with any one understanding it. 
One of the singular facts connected with these Indians 
of the Amazon valley, is the resemblance which exists 
between some of their customs, and those of nations most 
remote from them. The gravatana, or blow-pipe, re- 
appears in the sumpitan of Borneo ; the great houses of 
the Uaupes closely resemble those of the Dyaks of the 
same country ; while many small baskets and bamboo- 
boxes, from Borneo and New Guinea, are so similar in 
their form and construction to those of the Amazon, that 
they would b^ supposed to belong to adjoining tribes. 
