pers (Acridiidae) the wing-cases meet in a straight suture, and the friction of portions of their edges is no longer possible. But na ture exhibits the same fertility of resource here as elsewhere; and, in contriving other methods of supplying the males with an instrument for the production of call-notes, indicates the great importance which she attaches to this function. The music in the males of the Acridiidae is produced by the scraping of the long hind thighs against the horny nervures of the outer edges of the wing-cases, a drum-shaped organ placed in a cavity near the insertion of the thighs being adapted to give resonance to the tones. this neighborhood, the males of which pro duced. This differs in each of the three duce a very loud and not unmusical noise by allied families above mentioned. In the rubbing together the overlapping edges of crickets the wing- cases are symmetrical; their wing-cases. The notes are certainly both have straight edges and sharply scored the loudest and most extraordinary that I nervures adapted to produce the stridulation. ever heard produced by an orthopterous in- A distinct portion of their edges is not, theresect. The natives call it the Tanauá, in allu- fore, set apart for the elaboration of a soundsion to its music, which is a sharp, resonant producing instrument. In this family the stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-ná, wing-cases lie flat on the back of the insect, ta-na-ná, succeeding each other with little and overlap each other for a considerable intermission. It seems to be rare in the portion of their extent. In the Locustidæ neighborhood. When the natives capture the same members have a sloping position on one, they keep it in a wicker-work cage for each side of the body, and do not overlap, the sake of hearing it sing. A friend of except to a small extent near their bases; it mine kept one six days. It was lively only is out of this small portion that the stridufor two or three, and then its loud note could lating organ is contrived. Greater resonance be heard from one end of the village to the is given in most species by a thin transparent other. When it died, he gave me the speci- plate, covered by a membrane, in the centre men, the only one I was able to procure. It of the overlapping lobes. In the Grasshopis a member of the family Locustidæ, a group intermediate between the Crickets (Achetida) and the Grasshoppers (Acridiida). The total length of the body is two inches and a quar ter; when the wings are closed, the insect has an inflated vesicular or bladder-like shape, owing to the great convexity of the thin, but firm, parchmenty wing-cases, and the color is wholly pale green. The instrument by which the Tananá produces its music is curiously contrived out of the ordinary nervures of the wing-cases. In each wing-case the inner edge, near its origin, has a horny expansion or lobe; on one wing (b) this lobe has sharp raised margins; on the other (a), the strong nervure which traverses the lobe on the other side is crossed by a number of fine sharp furrows like those of a file. When the insect rapidly moves its wings, the file of the one lobe is scraped sharply across the horny margin of the other, thus producing the sounds, the parchmenty wing-cases and the hollow drum-like space which they enclose assisting to give resonance to the tones. The projecting portions of both wing cases are traversed by a similar strong nervure, but this is scored like a file only in one of them, in the other remaining perfectly smooth. Other species of the family to which the Tanana belongs have similar strilulating organs, but in none are these so highly developed as in this insect; they ex. ist always in the males only, the other sex having the edges of the wing cases quite straight and simple. The mode of producing the sounds, and their object, have been investigated by several authors with regard to certain European species. They are the call-notes of the males. In the common field-cricket of Europe, the male has been observed to place itself, in the evening, at the entrance of its burrow, and stridulate until a female approaches, when the louder notes are succeeded by a more subdued tone, while the successful musician caresses with his antennæ the mate he has won. Any one who, will take the trouble, may observe a similar proceeding in the common house cricket. The nature and object of this insect music are more uniform than the structure and situation of the instrument by which it is pro I obtained very few birds at Obydos. There was no scarcity of birds, but they were mostly common Cayenne species. In early morning the woods near my house were quite animated with their songs-an unusual thing in this country. I heard here for the first time the pleasing wild notes of the Carashué, a species of wild thrush, probably the Mimus lividus of ornithologists. I found it afterward to be a common bird in the scattered woods of the campo district near Santarem. It is a much smaller and plainer-colored bird than our thrush, and its song is not so loud, varied, or so long sustained; but the tone is of a sweet and plaintive quality, which harmonizes well with the wild and silent woodlands, where alone it is heard, in the mornings and evenings of sultry tropical days. In course of time the song of this humble thrush stirred up pleasing associations in my mind, in the same way as those of its more highly. endowed congeners formerly did at home. There are several allied species in Brazil; in the southern provinces they are called Sabiahs. The Brazilians are not insensible to the charms of this their best songster, for I often heard some pretty verses in praise of the Sabiah, sung by young people to the accompaniment of the guitar. I found several times the nest of the Carashué, which is built of dried grass and slender twigs, and lined with mud; the eggs are colored and spotted like those of our blackhird, but they are considerably smaller. I was much pleased with a brilliant little red-headed mannikin which I shot here (Pipra cornuta). There were three males seated on a low branch, and hopping slowly backward and forward, near to one another, as though engaged in a kind of dance. In the pleasant airy woods surrounding the sandy shores of the pool behind the town, the yellow-bellied Trogon (T. viridis) was very common. Its back is of a brilliant metallic green color, and the breast steel blue. The natives call it the Suruquá do Ygapó, or Trogon of the flooded lands, in contradistinction to the various red-breasted species, which are named Suruquás da terra firma. I often saw small companies of half a dozen individuals, quietly seated on the lower branches of trees. They remained almost motionless for an hour or two at a time, simply moving their heads, on the watch for passing insects, or, as seemed more generally to be the case, scanning the neighboring trees for fruit, which they dart off now and then, at long intervals, to secure, returning always to the same perch. CHAPTER VII. THE LOWER AMAZONS-OBYDOS TO MANAOS, OR THE BARRA OF THE RIO NEGRO. Departure from Obydos-River Banks and By-channels-Cacao Planters-Daily Life on Board our Vessel-Great Storm->and Island and its Birds-Hil of Parentins-Negro Trader and Mauhés Indians Villa Nova, its Inhabitants, Forest, and Animal Productions--Cararaucú-A Rustic Festival-Lake of Cacaraucú-Motúca Flies-Serpa-Christmas Holidays-River Madeira-A Mameluco Farmer Mura Indians-Rio Negro-Description of BarraDescent to Pará-Yellow Fever. A TRADER of Obydos, named Menna, was about proceeding in a cuberta laden with merchandise to the Rio Negro, intending to stop frequently on the road, so I bargained with him for a passage. He gave up a part of the toldo, or fore-cabin as it may be called, and here I slung my hammock and arranged my boxes, so as to be able to work as we went along. The stoppages I thought would be an advantage, as I could collect in the woods while he traded, and thus acquire a knowledge of the productions of many places on the river which, in a direct voyage, it would be impossible to do. I provided a stock of groceries for two months' consump. tion; and, after the usual amount of unnecessary fuss and delay on the part of the owner, we started on the 19th of November. Penna took his family with him; this comprised a smart, lively mameluco woman, named, Catarina, whom we called Senhora Katita, and two children. The crew consisted of three men, one a sturdy Indian, another a Cafuzo, godson of Penna, and the third, our best hand, a steady, good-natured mulatto, named Joaquim. My boy Luco was to assist in rowing and so forth. Penna was a timid middle-aged man, a white with a slight cross of Indian; when he was surly and obstinate, he used to ask me to excuse him on account of the Tapuyo blood in his veins. He tried to make me as comfortable as the circumstances admitted, and provided a large stock of eatables and drinkables; so that altogether the voyage promised to be a pleas ant one. On leaving the port of Obydos we crossed over to the right bank, and sailed with a light wind all day, passing numerous houses, each surrounded by its grove of cacao trecs. On the 20th we made slow progress. After passing the high land at the mouth of the Trombetas, the banks were low, clayey, or earthy on both sides. The breadth of the river varies hereabout from two and a half to three miles, but neither coast is the true terra firma. On the northern side a by-channel runs for a long distance inland, communicating with the extensive lake of Faro; on the south, three channels lead to the similar fresh water sea of Villa Franca; these are In part arms of the river, so that the land they surround consists, properly speaking, of islands. When this description of land is not formed wholly of river deposit, as sometimes happens, or is raised above the level of the highest floods, it is called Igapó alto, and is distinguished by the natives from the true islands of mid-river, as well as from the terra firma. We landed at one of the cacao plantations. The house was substantially built; the walls formed of strong upright posts, Jathed across, plastered with mud, and whitewashed, and the roof tiled. The family were mamelucos, and seemed to be an aveTage sample of the poorer class of cacao-growers. All were loosely dressed and barefooted A broad veranda extended along one side of the house, the floor of which was simply the well-trodden earth; and here hammocks were slung between the bare upright supports, a large rush mat being spread on the ground, upon which the stout mation-like mistress, with a tame parrot perched upon her shoulder, sat sewing with two pretty lit the mulatto girls. The master, coolly clad in shirt and drawers, the former loose about the neck, lay in his hammock smoking a loug, gaudily-painted wooden pipe. The househeld utensils, earthenware jars, water-pots, and saucepans, lay at one end, near which was a wood fire, with the ever-ready coffeepot simmering on the top of a clay tripod. A large shed stood a short distance off, embowered in a grove of banana, papaw, and mango trees; and under it were the ovens, troughs, sieves, and all other apparatus for the preparation of mandioca. The cleared space around the house was only a few yards in extent; beyond it lay the cacao piantations, which stretched on each side parallel to the banks of the river. There was a path through the forest which led to the mandioca fields, and several miles beyond to other houses on the banks of an interior channel. We were kindly received, as is always the case when a stranger visits these cut-of-theway habitations, the people being invariably civil and hospitable. We had a long chat, took coffee, and on departing one of the daughters sent a basketful of oranges for our use down to the canoe. The cost of a cacao plantation in the Obydos district is after the rate of 240 reis or sixpence per tree, which is much higher than at Cametá, where I believe the yield is not so great. The forest here is cleared before planting, and the trees were grown in rows. The smaller cultivators are all very poor, Labor is scarce; one family generally manages its own small plantation of 10,000 to 15,000 trees, but at the harvest time neigh. bors assist each other. It appeared to me to be an easy, pleasant life; the work is all done under shade, and occupies only a few weeks in the year. The incorrigible nonchalance and laziness of the people alone prevent them from surrounding themselves with all the luxuries of a tropical country. They might plant orchards of the choicest fruit trees around their houses, grow Indian corn, and rear cattle and hogs, as intelligent settlers from Europe would certainly do, instead of indolently relying solely on the produce of their small plantations, and living on a meagre diet of fish and farinha. In preparing the cacao they have not devised any means of separating the seed well from the pulp, or arying it in a systematic way; the Consequence is that, although naturally of good quality, it moulds before reaching the merchants' stores, and does not fetch more than half the price of the same article grown in other parts of tropical America. The Amazons region is the original home of the princ.pal species of chocolate tree, the Theobroma cacao; and it grows in abundance in the forests of the upper river. The cultivated crop appears to be a precarious one; little or no care, however, is bestowed on the trees, and even weeding is done very inefficiently. The plantations are generally old, and have been made on the low ground near the river, which renders them liable to inundation when this rises a few inches more than the average. There is plenty of higher land quite suitable to the tree, but it is uncleared, and the want of labor and enterprise prevents the establishment of new planta tions. We passed the last houses in the Obydos district on the 20th, and the river scenery then resumed its usual wild and solitary character, which the scattered human habitations relieved, although in a small degree. We soon fell into a regular mode of life on board our little ark. Penna would not travel by night; indeed, our small crew, wearied by the day's labor, required rest, and we very rarely had wind in the night. We used to moor the vessel to a tree, giving out plenty of cable, so as to sleep at a distance from the banks and free of mosquitoes, which although swarming in the forest, rarely tame many yards out into the river at this season of the year. The strong current, at a distance of thirty or forty yards from the Coast, steadied the cuberta head to stream, and kept us from drifting ashore. We all slept in the open air, as the heat of the cab ins was stifling in the early part of the night. Penna, Seuhora Katita, and I, slung out hammocks in triangle between the mainmast and two stout poles fixed in the raised deck. A sheet was the only covering required, be sides our regular clothing; for the decrease of temperature at night on the Amazons i never so great as to be felt otherwise than as a delightful coolness, after the sweltering heat of the afternoons. We used to rise when the first gleam of dawn showed itself above the long dark line of forest. Our clothes and hammocks were then generally soaked with dew, but this was not felt to be an inconvenience. The Indian Manoel used to revive himself by a plunge in the river, under the bows of the vessel. It is the habit of all Indians, male and female, to bathe early in the morning; they do it sometimes for warmth's sake, the temperature of the water being often considerably higher than that of the air. Penna and I lolled in our hammocks, while Katita prepared the indispensable cup of strong coffee, which she did with wonderful celerity, smoking meanwhile her early morning pipe of tobacco. Liberal owners of river craft allow a cup of coffee sweetened with molasses, or a ration of cashaça, to each man of their crews; Penna gave them coffee. When all were served, the day's work began. There was seldom any wind at this early hour; so if there was still water along the shore the men rowed, if not, there was no way of progressing but by espia. In some places the currents ran with great force close to the banks, especially where these receded to form long bays or enseadas, as they are called, and then we made very little headway. In such places the banks consist of loose earth, a rich crumbly vegetable mould, supporting a growth of most luxuriant forest, of which the currents almost daily carry away large portions, so that the stream for several yards out is incumbered with fallen trees, whose branches quiver in the current. When projecting points of land were encountered, it was in possible, with our weak crew, to pull the cuberta against the whirling torrents which set round them; and in such cases we had to cross the river, drifting often with the cur rent, a mi or two lower down on the oppo site shore. There generally sprung up a light wind as the day advanced, and then we took down our hammocks, hoisted all sail, and bowled away merrily. Penna generally preferred to cook the dinner ashore, when there was little or no wind. About mid-day on these calm days we used to look out for a nice shady nook in the forest, with cleared space sufficient to make a fire upon. I then had an hour's hunting in the neighboring wilderness, and was always rewarded by the discovery of some new species. During the greater part of our voyage, however, we stopped at the house of soine settler, and made our fire in the port. Just before din ner it was our habit to take a bath in the river. and then, according to the universal custom on the Amazous, where it seems to be suitable on account of the weak fish diet, we each took half a teacupful of neat cashaça, the "abre" or opening, as it is called, and set to on or mess of stewed " a black pall of clouds spread itself over the dark forests and river; a frightful crack of thunder now bursts over our heads, and down fell the drenching rain. Joaquim leaped ashore through the drowning spray with a strong pole, and tried to pass the cuberta round a small projecting point, while we on deck aided in keeping her off and lengthened the cable. We succeeded in getting free, and the stout-built boat fell off into the strong current farther away from the shore, Joaquim swinging himself dexterously aboard by the bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate for us that we happened to be on a sloping clayey bank, where there was no fear of falling trees; a few yards farther on, where the shore was perpendic ular and formed of crumbly carth, large portions of loose soil, with all their superincumbent mass of forest, were being washed away; the uproar thus occasioned adding to the horrors of the storm. pirarecú, beans, and bacon. Once or twice being dashed to pieces. The moon set, and a week we had fowls and rice; at supper, after sunset, we often had fresh fish caught by our men in the evening. The mornings were cool and pleasant until toward midday; but in the afternoons the heat became almost intolerable, especially in gleamy, squally weather, such as generally prevailed. We then crouched in the shade of the sails, or went down to our hammocks in the cabin, choosing to be half stifled rather than expose ourselves on deck to the sickening heat of the sun. We generally ceased travelling about nine o'clock, fixing upon a safe spot wherein to secure the vessel for the night. The cool evening hours were delicions; flocks of whistling ducks (Anas autumnalis), parrots, and hoarsely screaming macaws, pair by pair, flew over from their feeding to their resting places, as the glowing san plunged abruptly beneath the horizon. The brief evening chorus of animals then began, the chief performers being the howling monkeys, whose frightful unearthly roar deepened the feeling of solitude which crept on as darkness closed around us. Soon after, the fireflies in great diversity of species came forth and flitted about the trees. As night advanced, all became silent in the forest, save the occasional booting of tree-frogs, or the monotonous chirping of wood-crickets and grasshoppers. We made but little progress on the 20th and two following days, on account of the unsteadiness of the wind. The dry season had been of very brief duration this year; it generally lasts in this part of the Amazons from July to January, with a short interval of showery weather in November. The river ought to sink thirty or thirty-five feet below its highest point; this year it had declined only about twenty-five feet, and the November rains threatened to be continuous. The drier the weather, the stronger blows the east wind; it now failed us altogether, er blew gently for a few hours merely in the afternoons. I had hitherto seen the great river only in its sunniest aspect; I was now about to witness what it could furnish in the way of storms. On the night of the 22d the moon appeared with a misty halo. As we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was blowing, and a dark pile of clouds gathering up river in a direction opposite to that of the wind. I thought this betokened nothing more than a heavy rain, which would send us all in a hurry to our cabins. The men moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard clay ey bank, and after supper all were soon fast asleep, scattered about the raised deck. About eleven o'clock I was awakened by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind suddenly swept over from the opposite shore. The cuberta was hurled with force against the clayey hank; Penna shouted out, as he started to his legs, that a trovoada de cima, or a squall from up river, was upon us. We took down our hammocks, and then all hands were required to save the vessel from The violence of the wind abated in the course of an hour, but the deluge of rain continued until about three o'clock in the morning; the sky being lighted up by almost incessant flashes of pallid lightning, and the thunder pealing from side to side without interruption. Our clothing, hammcks, and goods were thoroughly soaked by the streams of water which trickled through between the planks. In the morning all was quict; but an opaque, leaden mass of clouds overspread the sky, throwing a gloom over the wild landscape that had a most dispiriting effect. These squalls from the west are always expected about the time of the breaking up of the dry season, in these central parts of the Lower Amazons. They gener ally take place about the beginning of February, so that this year they had commenced much earlier than usual. The soil and climate are much drier in this part of the country than in the region lying farther to the west, where the denser forests and more clayey, humid soil produce a considerably cooler atmosphere. The storms may be therefore attributed to the rush of cold moist air from up river, when the regular tradewind coming from the sea has slackened or ceased to blow. On the 26th we arrived at a large sandbank connected with an island in mid-river, in front of an inlet called Maracánassá. Here we anchored and spent half a day ashore. Penua's object in stopping was sim ply to enjoy a ramble on the sands with the children, and give Senhora Katita an opportunity to wash the linen. The sand-bank was now fast going under water with the rise of the river; in the middle of the dry season i is about a mile long and half a mile in width. The canoe-men delight in these open spaces, which are a great relief to the monotony of the forest that clothes the land in every other part of the river. Farther westward they are much more frequent, and of larger extent. They lie generally at the upper end of islands; in fact, the latter originate in ac in the shade, and are stimulated to exertion cretions of vegetable matter, formed by plants and trees growing on a shoal. The island was wooded chiefly with the trumpettree (Cecropia peltata), which has a hollow stem and smooth pale bark. The leaves are similar in shape to those of the horse-chestnut, but immensely larger; beneath they are white, and when the welcome trade-wind blows they show their silvery under sides-a On the 27th we reached an elevated woodpleasant signal to the weary canoe traveller. en promontory, called Parentins, which now The mode of growth of this tree is curious: forms the boundary between the provinces of the branches are emitted at nearly right Pará and the Amazons. Here we met a angles with the stem, the branchlets in minor small canoe descending to Santarem. The whorls around these, and so forth, the leaves owner was a free negro named Lima, whɔ, growing at their extremities; so that the with his wife, was going down the river to total appearance is that of a huge candela- exchange his year's crop of tobacco for Eurobrum. Cecropia of different species are pean merchandise. The long shallow canoe characteristic of Brazilian forest scenery; was laden nearly to the water level. He rethe kind of which I am speaking grows in sided on the banks of the Abacaxí, a river great numbers everywhere on the banks of which discharges its waters into the Canomá, the Amazons where the land is low. In the a broad interior channel which extends from same places the curious monguba-tree (Bon- the river Madeira to the Parentins, a distance bax ceiba) is also plentiful; the dark-green of 180 miles. Penna offered him advantagebark of its huge tapering trunk, scored with ous terms, so a bargain was struck, and the gray, forming a conspicuous object. The man saved his long journey. The negro principal palm-tree on the lowlands is the seemed a frank, straightforward fellow; he Jauari (Astryocaryum Jauarí), whose stem, was a native of Pernambuco, but had settled surrounded by whorls of spines, shoots up to many years ago in this part of the country. a great height. On the borders of the island He had with him a little Indian girl belongwere large tracts of arrow-grass (Gynerium ing to the Mauhés tribe, whose native seat is saccharoides), which bears elegant plumes of the district of country lying in the rear of feathers, like those of the reed, and grows to the Canomá, between the Madeira and the a height of twenty feet, the leaves arranged Tapajos. The Mauhés are considered, 1 in a fan-shaped figure near the middle of the think with truth, to be a branch of the great stem. I was surprised to find on the higher Mundurucú nation, having segregated from parts of the sand-bank the familiar foliage of them at a remote period, and by long isolaa willow (Salix Humboldtiana). It is a tion acquired different customs and a totally dwarf species, and grows in patches resem- different language, in a manner which seems bling beds of osiers; as in the English wil to have been general with the Brazilian abolows, the leaves were peopled by small chrys rigines. The Mundurucús seem to have reomelideous beetles. In wandering about, tained more of the general characteristics of many features reminded me of the sea-shore. the original Tupí stock than the Mauhés. Flocks of white gulls were flying overhead, Senhor Lima told me, what I afterward uttering their well-known cry, and sand- found to be correct, that there were scarcely pipers coursed along the edge of the water. two words alike in the languages of the two Here and there lonely wading birds were people, although there are words closely stalking about; one of these, the Curicáca allied to Tupí in both. The little girl had (Ibis melanopis), flew up with a low cackling not the slightest trace of the savage in her noise, and was soon joined by an unicorn- appearance. Her features were finely shaped, bird (Palamedea cornuta), which I startled the cheek-bones not at all prominent, the lips up from amid the bushes, whose harsh screams, resembling the bray of a jackass, but shuiller, disturbed unpleasantly the solitude of the place. Among the willow-bushes were flocks of a handsome bird belonging to the Icteridæ or troupial family, adorned with a rich plumage of black and saffron-yellow. I spent some time watching an assemblage of a species of bird called by the natives Tamburí-pará, on the cecropia-trees. It is the Monasa nigrifrons of ornithologists, and has a plain sl le-colored plumage, with the beak of an orange hue. It belongs to the family of Barbets, most of whose members are re, markable for their dull, inactive temperament. Those species which are arranged by orni, thologists under the genus Bucco are called by the Indians, in the Tupí language, Tai- We remained under the Serra dos Parentins. assú uirá, or pig-birds. They remain seated all night. Early the next morning a light sometimes for hours together on low branches mist hung about the tree-tops, and the forest. thin, and the expression of her countenance frank and smiling. She had been brought only a few weeks previously from a remote settlement of her tribe on the banks of the Abacaxí, and did not yet know five words of Portuguese. The Indians, as a general rule, are very manageable when they are young but it is a frequent complaint that when they reach the age of puberty they become restless and discontented. The rooted impatience of all restraint then shows itself, and the kindest treatment will not prevent them running away from their masters; they do not return to the malocas of their tribes, but. join parties who go out to collect the produce of the forests and rivers, and lead a wandering, semi-savage kind of life. |