A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,

In order to give some idea of the state of industry and the arts among these people, I subjoin a list of articles which I collected when among them, to illustrate their manners, customs, and state of civilization, but which were unfortunately all lost on my passage home.

LIST OF ARTICLES MANUFACTURED BY THE INDIANS OF THE RIO DOS UAUPÉS.

Household Furniture and Utensils.

1. Hammocks, or maqueiras, of palm-fibre, of various materials, colours, and texture.

2. Small wooden stools, of various sizes, painted and varnished. (Plate VI. d.)

3. Flat baskets of plaited bark, in regular patterns and of various colours.

4. Deeper baskets, called “Aturás.” (Plate V. d.)

5. Calabashes and gourds, of various shapes and sizes.

6. Water-pitchers of earthenware.

7. Pans of earthenware for cooking.

Articles used in the Manufacture of Mandiocca Bread.

8. Mandiocca graters, of quartz fragments set in wood. (Plate V. a.)

9. Tipitis, or wicker elastic pressure cylinders.

10. Wicker sieves for straining the pulp.

11. Ovens for roasting cassava-bread and farinha. (Plate V. b.)

12. Plaited fans for blowing the fire and turning the cakes.

Weapons used in War, Hunting, and Fishing.

13. Bows of various woods and different sizes.

14. Quivers of curabís, or poisoned war-arrows.

15. Arrows with heads of monkey-bones.

16. Arrows, with iron heads, for shooting fish.

17. Gravatánas, or blow-tubes, from eight to fourteen feet long.

18. Wicker and wooden quivers, with poisoned arrows for them.

19. Small pots and calabashes, with the curarí or ururí poison.

20. Large carved clubs of hard wood.

21. Carved and feather ornamented lances.

22. Large circular shields of wicker-work.

23. Ditto, covered with tapir’s skin.

24. Nets for fishing (Pisás).

25. Rod and line for fishing.

26. Palm-spine fish-hooks.

27. Small wicker traps for catching fish (Matapís).

Musical Instruments.

28. A small drum.

29. Eight large trumpets, the Juruparí music.

30. Numerous fifes and flutes of reeds.

31. Fifes made of deer-bones.

31*. Whistle of a deer’s skulk

32. Vibrating instruments of tortoise and turtle shells.

Ornaments, Dress, and Miscellaneous.

33. About twenty distinct articles, forming the feather head-dress.

34. Combs of palm-wood, ornamented with feathers. (Plate VI. a.)

35. Necklaces of seeds and beads.

36. Bored cylindrical quartz-stone.

37. Copper earrings, and wooden plugs for the ears.

38. Armlet of feathers, beads, seeds, etc.

39. Girdle of jaguars’ teeth.

40. Numbers of cords, made of the “coroá” fibre, mixed with the hair of monkeys and jaguars,—making a soft elastic cord used for binding up the hair, and various purposes of ornament.

41. Painted aprons, or “tangas,” made from the inner bark of a tree.

42. Women’s bead tangas.

43. Battles and ornaments for the legs.

44. Garters strongly knitted of “coroá.”

45. Packages and carved calabashes, filled with a red pigment called “crajurú.”

46. Large cloths of prepared bark.

47. Very large carved wooden forks for holding cigars. (Plate VI. b.)

48. Large cigars used at festivals.

49. Spathes of the Bussu palm (Manicaria saccifera), used for preserving feather-ornaments, etc.

50. Square mats.

51. Painted earthen pot, used for holding the “capi” at festivals.

52. Small pot of dried peppers.

53. Rattles used in dancing, formed of calabashes, carved, and ornamented with small stones inside. (Plate VI. c.) (Maracás.)

54. Painted dresses of prepared bark (tururí).

55. Balls of string, of various materials and degrees of fineness.

56. Bottle-shaped baskets, for preserving the edible ants.

57. Tinder-boxes of bamboo carved, and filled with tinder from an ant’s nest.

58. Small canoe hollowed from a tree.

59. Paddles used with ditto.

60. Triangular tool, used for making the small stools.

61. Pestles and mortars, used for pounding peppers and tobacco.

62. Bark bag, full of summaúma, the silk-cotton of a Bombax, used for making blowing-arrows.

63. Chest of plaited palm-leaves, used for holding feather-ornaments.

64. Stone axes, used before the introduction of iron.

65. Clay cylinders, for supporting cooking utensils. (Plate V. c.)[2]

The Indians of the river Isánna are few in comparison with those of the Uaupés, the river not being so large or so productive of fish.

The tribes are named—

• Baníwas, or Manívas (Mandiocca).
• Arikénas.
• Bauatánas.
• Ciuçí (Stars).
• Coatí (the Nasua coatimundi).
• Juruparí (Devils).
• Ipéca (Ducks).

Papunauás, the name of a river, a tributary of the Guaviáre, but which has its sources close to the Isánna.

These tribes are much alike in all their customs, differing only in their languages; as a whole however they offer remarkable points of difference from those of the river Uaupés.

In stature and appearance they are very similar, but they have rather more beard, and do not pull out the hair of the body and face, and they cut the hair of their head with a knife, or, wanting that, with a hard sharp grass. Thus, the absence of the long queue of hair forms a striking characteristic difference in their appearance.

In their dress they differ in the women always wearing a small tanga of turúri, instead of going perfectly naked, as among the Uaupés; they also wear more necklaces and bracelets, and the men fewer, and the latter do not make use of so many feather-ornaments and decorations in their festivals.

Each family has a separate house, which is small, of a square shape, and possesses both a door and windows; and the houses are collected together in little scattered villages. The Isánna Indians make the small flat baskets like the Uaupés, but not the stools, nor the aturás, neither have they the white cylindrical stone which the others so much esteem. They marry one, two, or three wives, and prefer relations, marrying with cousins, uncles with nieces, and nephews with aunts, so that in a village all are connected. The men are more warlike and morose in their disposition than the Uaupés, by whom they are much feared. They bury their dead in their houses, and mourn for them a long time, but make no feast on the occasion. The Isánna Indians are said not to be nearly so numerous, nor to increase so rapidly, as the Uaupés; which may perhaps be owing to their marrying with relations, while the former prefer strangers.

The Arekámas make war against other tribes, to obtain prisoners for food, like the Cobeus. In their superstitions and religious ideas they much resemble the Uaupés.

The Macús are one of the lowest and most uncivilized tribes of Indians in the Amazon district. They inhabit the forests and serras about the rivers Marié, Curicuriarí, and Urubaxí, and live a wandering life, having no houses and no fixed place of abode, and of course no clothing; they have little or no iron, and use the tusks of the wild pig to scrape and form their bows and arrows, and they make a most deadly kind of poison to anoint them. At night they sleep on a bundle of palm-leaves, or stick up a few leaves to make a shed if it rains, or sometimes, with “sipós,” construct a rude hammock, which however serves only once. They eat all kinds of birds and fish, roasted or boiled in palm-spathes; and all sorts of wild fruits.

The Macús often attack the houses of other Indians situated in solitary places, and murder all the inhabitants; and they have even depopulated and caused the removal of several villages. All the other tribes of Indians catch them and keep them as slaves, and in most villages you will see some of them. They are distinguishable at once from the surrounding tribes by a wavy and almost curly hair, and by being rather lanky and ill formed in their limbs: I am inclined however to think that this latter is partly owing to their mode of life, and the hardships and exposure they have to undergo; as some that I have seen in the houses of traders have been as well-formed and handsome as any of the other Indian tribes.

The Curetús are a nation inhabiting the country about the river Apaporís, between the Japurá and Uaupés. I met with some Indians of this tribe on the Rio Negro, and the only peculiarity I observed in them was, that their cheek-bones were rather more prominent than usual. From them, and from an Isánna Indian who had visited them, I obtained some information about their customs.

They wear their hair long like the Uaupés, and, like them, the women go entirely naked; and they paint their bodies, but do not tattoo. Their houses are large and circular, with walls of thatch, and a high conical capped roof, made like some chimney-pots, with the upper part overlapping, so as to let the smoke escape without allowing the rain to enter. They do not wander about, but reside in small permanent villages, governed by a chief, and are said to be long-lived and very peaceable, never quarrelling or making war with other nations. The men have but one wife. There are no pagés, or priests, among them, and they have no ideas of a superior Being. They cultivate mandiocca, maize, and other fruits, and use game more than fish for food. No civilized man has ever been among them, so they have no salt, and a very scanty supply of iron, and obtain fire by friction. It is said also that they differ from most other tribes in making no intoxicating drinks. Their language is full of harsh and aspirated sounds, and is somewhat allied to those of the Tucanos and Cobeus among the Uaupés.

In the lower part of the Japurá reside the “Uaenambeus,” or Humming-bird Indians. I met with some of them in the Rio Negro, and obtained some information as to their customs and language. In most particulars they much resemble the last-mentioned tribe, particularly in their circular houses, their food, and mode of life. Like them they weave the fibres of the Tucúm palm-leaf (Astrocaryum vulgare) to make their hammocks, whereas the Uaupés and Isánna Indians always use the leaf of the Mirití (Mauritia flexuosa). They are distinguished from other tribes by a small blue mark on the upper lips. They have from one to four wives, and the women always wear a small apron of bark.

Closely allied to these, are the Jurís of the Solimões, between the Iça and Japurá. A number of them have migrated to the Rio Negro, and become settled and partly civilized there. They are remarkable for a custom of tattooing in a circle (not in a square, as in a plate in Dr. Prichard’s work,) round the mouth, so as exactly to resemble the little black-mouthed squirrel-monkeys (Callithrix sciureus); from this cause they are often called the Juripixúnas (Black Juris), or by the Brazilians “Bocapreitos” (Black-mouths). From this, strange errors have arisen: we find in some maps the note “Juries, curly-haired Negroes,” whereas they are pure straight-haired Indians. They are good servants for canoe and agricultural work, and are the most skilful of all in the use of the gravatána, or blow-pipe.

In the same neighbourhood are Miránhas, who are cannibals; and the Ximánas and Cauxánas, who kill all their first-born children: in fact, between the Upper Amazon, the Guaviare, and the Andes, there is a region as large as England, whose inhabitants are entirely uncivilized and unknown.

On the south side of the Amazon also, between the Madeira and the Uaycáli, and extending to the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, is a still larger tract of unknown virgin forest, uninhabited by a single civilized man: here reside numerous nations of the native American race, known only by the reports of the border tribes, who form the communication between them and the traders of the great rivers.

One of the best-known and most regularly visited rivers of this great tract is the Purús, whose mouth is a short distance above the Rio Negro, but whose sources a three months’ voyage does not reach. Of the Indians found on the banks of this river I have been able to get some information.

Five tribes are met with by the traders:—

1. Múras, from the mouth to sixteen days’ voyage up.

2. Purupurús, from thence to about thirty days’ voyage up.

3. Catauxís, in the district of the Purupurús, but in the igaripés and lakes inland.

4. Jamamarís, inland on the west bank.

5. Jubirís, on the river-banks above the Purupurús.

The Múras are rather a tall race, have a good deal of beard for Indians, and the hair of the head is slightly crisp and wavy. They used formerly to go naked, but now the men all wear trowsers and shirts, and the women petticoats. Their houses are grouped together in small villages, and are scarcely ever more than a roof supported on posts; very rarely do they take the trouble to build any walls. They make no hammocks, but hang up three bands of a bark called “invíra,” on which they sleep; but the more civilized now purchase of the traders, hammocks made by other Indians. They practise scarcely any cultivation, except sometimes a little mandiocca, but generally live on wild fruits, and abundance of fish and game: their food is entirely produced by the river, consisting of the Manatus, or cow-fish, which is as good as beef, turtles, and various kinds of fish, all of which are in great abundance, so that the traders say there are no people who live so well as the Múras; they have therefore no occasion for gravatánas, which they do not make, but have a great variety of bows and arrows and harpoons, and construct very good canoes. They now all cut their hair; the old men have a large hole in their lower lip filled up with a piece of wood, but this custom is now disused. Each man has two or three wives, but there is no ceremony of marriage; and they bury their dead sometimes in the house, but more commonly outside, and put all the goods of the deceased upon his grave. The women use necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the men tie the seeds of the India-rubber tree to their legs when they dance. Each village has a Tushaúa: the succession is hereditary, but the chief has very little power. They have pagés, 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 catching 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 (Bertholletia excelsa), used extensively for caulking canoes; and pay them in cotton goods, harpoon and arrow-heads, hooks, beads, knives, cutlasses, etc.

The next tribe, the Purupurús, are in many respects very peculiar, and differ remarkably in their habits from any other nation we have yet described. They call themselves Pamouirís, but are always called by the Brazilians Purupurús, 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 invariably become more or less spotted. Other Indians are sometimes seen afflicted in this manner, and they are then said to have the Purupurú; 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 Purupurús, men and women, go perfectly naked; and their houses are of the rudest construction, being semicylindrical, like those of our gipsies, and so small, as to be set up on the sandy beaches, and carried away in their canoes whenever they wish to move. These canoes are of the rudest construction, having a flat bottom and upright sides,—a mere square box, and quite unlike those of all other Indians. But what distinguishes them yet more from their neighbours is, that they use neither the gravatána, nor bow and arrows, but have an instrument called a “palheta,” which is a piece of wood with a projection at the end, to secure the base of the arrow, the middle of which is held with the handle of the palheta in the hand, and thus thrown as from a sling: they have a surprising dexterity in the use of this weapon, and with it readily kill game, birds, and fish.

They grow a few fruits, such as yams and plantains, but seldom have any mandiocca, and they construct earthen pans to cook in. They sleep in their houses on the sand of the prayas, making no hammocks or clothing of any kind; they make no fires in their houses, which are too small, but are kept warm at night by the number of persons in them. They bore large holes in the upper and lower lip, in the septum of the nose, and in the ears; at their festivals they insert in these holes sticks, six or eight inches long; at other times they have only a short piece in, to keep them open. In the wet season, when the prayas and banks of the river are all flooded, they construct rafts, of trunks of trees bound together with creepers, and on them erect their huts, and live there till the waters fall again, when they guide their raft to the first sandy beach that appears.

Little is known of their domestic customs and superstitions. The men have each but one wife; the dead are buried in the sandy beaches; and they are not known to have any pagés. A few families only live together, in little moveable villages, to each of which there is a Tushaúa. They have, at times, dances and festivals, when they make intoxicating drinks from wild fruits, and amuse themselves with rude musical instruments, formed of reeds and bones. They do not use salt, but prefer payment in fish-hooks, knives, beads, and farinha, for the salsaparilha and turtle-oil which they sell to the traders.

May not the curious disease, to which they are so subject, be produced by their habit of constantly sleeping naked on the sand, instead of in the comfortable, airy, and cleanly hammock, so universally used by almost every other tribe of Indians in this part of South America?

The Catauixis, though in the immediate neighbourhood of the last, are very different. They have permanent houses, cultivate mandiocca, sleep in hammocks, and are clear-skinned. They go naked like the last, but do not bore holes in their nose and lips; they wear a ring of twisted hair on their arms and legs. They use bows, arrows, and gravatánas, and make the ervadúra, or ururí poison. Their canoes are made of the bark of a tree, taken off entire. They eat principally forest game, tapirs, monkeys, and large birds; they are however cannibals, killing and eating any Indians of other tribes they can procure, and they preserve the meat, smoked and dried. Senhor Domingos, a Portuguese trader up the river Purús, informed me that he once met a party of them, who felt his belly and ribs, as a butcher would handle a sheep, and talked much to each other, apparently intimating that he was fat, and would be excellent eating.

Of the Jamamarís we have no authentic information, but that they much resemble the last in their manners and customs, and in their appearance.

The Jubirís are equally unknown; they however most resemble the Purupurús in their habits and mode of life, and, like them, have their bodies spotted and mottled, though not to such a great extent.

In the country between the Tapajóz and the Madeira, among the labyrinth of lakes and channels of the great island of the Tupinambarános, reside the Mundrucús, the most warlike Indians of the Amazon. These are, I believe, the only perfectly tattooed nation in South America: the markings are extended all over the body; they are produced by pricking with the spines of the pupunha palm, and rubbing in the soot from burning pitch to produce the indelible bluish tinge.

They make their houses with mud walls, in regular villages. In each village they have a large building which serves as a kind of barrack, or fortress, where all the men sleep at night, armed with their bows and arrows, ready in case of alarm: this house is surrounded within with dried heads of their enemies: these heads they smoke and dry, so as to preserve all the features and the hair most perfectly. They make war every year with an adjoining tribe, the Parentintins, taking the women and children for slaves, and preserving the heads of the men. They make good canoes and hammocks. They live principally on forest-game, and are very agricultural, making quantities of farinha and growing many fruits. The men 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 Tapajóz, make the girls undergo the same cruel initiation as has been already described as common among the Uaupés and Isánna Indians.

On the north banks of the Rio Negro are many uncivilized tribes, very little known.

On the south banks, the Manaós 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 Pará: 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 gravatána, or blow-pipe, reappears in the sumpitan of Borneo; the great houses of the Uaupés 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 be supposed to belong to adjoining tribes. Then again the Mundrucús, like the Dyaks, take the heads of their enemies, smoke-dry them with equal care, preserving the skin and hair entire, and hang them up around their houses. In Australia the throwing-stick is used; and, on a remote branch of the Amazon, we see a tribe of Indians differing from all around them, in substituting for the bow a weapon only found in such a remote portion of the earth, among a people differing from them in almost every physical character.

It will be necessary to obtain much more information on this subject, before we can venture to decide whether such similarities show any remote connection between these nations, or are mere accidental coincidences, produced by the same wants, acting upon people subject to the same conditions of climate and in an equally low state of civilization; and it offers additional matter for the wide-spreading speculations of the ethnographer.

The main feature in the personal character of the Indians of this part of South America, is a degree of diffidence, bashfulness, or coldness, which affects all their actions. It is this that produces their quiet deliberation, their circuitous way of introducing a subject they have come to speak about, talking half an hour on different topics before mentioning it: owing to this feeling, they will run away if displeased, rather than complain, and will never refuse to undertake what is asked them, even when they are unable or do not intend to perform it.

It is the same peculiarity which causes the men never to exhibit any feeling on meeting after a separation; though they have, and show, a great affection for their children, whom they never part with; nor can they be induced to do so, even for a short time. They scarcely ever quarrel among themselves, work hard, and submit willingly to authority. They are ingenious and skilful workmen, and readily adopt any customs of civilized life that may be introduced among them; and they seem capable of being formed, by education and good government, into a peaceable and civilized community.

This change however will perhaps never take place: they are exposed to the influence of the refuse of Brazilian society, and will probably, before many years, be reduced to the condition of the other half-civilized Indians of the country, who seem to have lost the good qualities of savage life, and gained only the vices of civilization.