Cuap. XI. THE PASSES. 2c9

the civilised Mamelucos; but he and his people showed a greater industry, and were more open, cheerful, and generous in their dealings than many half-castes. The authority of Pedro, like that of the Tushatias generally, was exercised in a mild manner. These chieftains appear able to command the services of their subjects, since they furnish men to the Brazilian authorities when requested; but none of them, even those of the most advanced tribes, appear to make use of this authority for the accumulation of property; the service being exacted chiefly in time of war. Had the ambition of the chiefs of some of these industrious tribes been turned to the acquisition of wealth, probably we should have seen indigenous civilised nations in the heart of South America similar to those found on the Andes of Peru and Mexico. It is very probable that the Passés adopted from the first to some extent the manners of the whites. Ribeiro,a Portuguese official who travelled in these regions in 1774-5, and wrote an account of his journey, relates that they buried their dead in large earthenware vessels (a custom still observed amongst other tribes on the Upper Amazons), and that, as to their marriages, the young men earned their brides by valiant deeds in war. He also states that they possessed a cosmogony, in which the belief that the sun was a fixed body with the earth revolving around it, was a prominent feature. He says, moreover, that they believed in a Creator of all things; a future state of rewards and punishments, and so forth. These notions are so far in advance of the ideas of all other tribes of Indians, and so little likely to have been conceived and perfected by a people having no written language or leisured class, that we must suppose them to have been derived by the docile Passés from some early missionary or traveller. I never found that the Passés had more curiosity or activity of intellect than other Indians. No trace of a belief in a future state exists amongst Indians who have not had much intercourse with the civilised settlers, and even amongst those who have it is only a few of the more gifted individuals who show any curiosity on the subject. Their sluggish minds seem unable to conceive or feel the want of a theory of the soul, and of the relations of man to the Creator or the rest of Nature. But is it not so with totally uneducated and isolated people even in the most highly civilised parts of the world? The good qualities of the Passés belong to the moral part of the character: they lead a contented, unambitious, and friendly life, a quiet, domestic, orderly existence, varied by occasional drinking bouts and summer excursions. They are not so shrewd, energetic, and masterful as the Munduructs, but théy are more easily taught, because their disposition is more yielding than that of the Munduructs or any other tribe. We started on our return to Ega at half-past four o’clock in the afternoon. Our generous entertainers loaded us with presents. There was scarcely room for us to sit in the canoe, as they had sent down ten large bundles of sugar-cane, four baskets of farinha, three cedar-planks, a small hamper of coffee, and two heavy bunches of bananas. After we were embarked the old lady came with a parting gift for me—a huge bowl of smoking hot banana porridge. I was to eat it on the road “to keep my stomach warm.” Both stood on the bank as we pushed off,

and gave us their adeos, “Ikuadna Tupana eirim” (Go with God): a form of salutation taught by the old Jesuit missionaries. We had a most uncomfortable passage, for Cardozo was quite tipsy, and had not attended to the loading of the boat. The cargo had been placed too far forward, and to make matters worse my heavy friend obstinately insisted on sitting astride on the top of the pile, instead of taking his place near the stern, singing from his perch a most indecent love-song, and disregarding the inconvenience of having to bend down almost every minute to pass under the boughs and hanging sipds as we sped rapidly along. The canoe leaked, but not at first alarmingly. Long before sunset darkness began to close in under these gloomy shades, and our steersman could not avoid now and then running the boat into the thicket. The first time this happened a piece was broken off the square prow (rodella); the second time we got squeezed between two trees. A short time after this latter accident, being seated near the stern, with my feet on the bottom of the boat, I felt rather suddenly the cold water above my ankles. A few minutes more and we should have sunk, for a seam had been opened forward under the pile of sugarcane. Two of us began to bale, and by the most strenuous efforts managed to keep afloat without throwing overboard our cargo. The Indians were obliged to paddle with extreme slowness to avoid shipping water, as the edge of our prow was nearly level with the surface; but Cardozo was now persuaded to change his seat. The sun set, the quick twilight passed, and the moon soon after began to glimmer through the thick canopy of foliage. The prospect of being swamped in this hideous solitude was by no means pleasant, although I calculated on the chance of swimming to a tree and finding a nice snug place in the fork of some large bough wherein to pass the night. At length, after four hours’ tedious progress, we suddenly emerged on the open stream, where the moonlight glittered in broad sheets on the gently rippling waters. A little extra care was now required in paddling. ‘The Indians plied their strokes with the greatest nicety; the lights of Ega (the oil lamps in the houses) soon appeared beyond the black wall of forest, and in a short time we leapt safely ashore.

A few months after the excursion just narrated, I accompanied Cardozo in many wanderings on the Solimoens, during which we visited the praias (sand islands), the turtle pools in the forests, and the by-streams and lakes of the great desert river. His object was mainly to superintend the business of digging up turtle eggs on the sand-banks, having been elected commandante for the year, by the municipal council of Ega, of the “ praia real” (royal sand island) of Shimuni, the one lying nearest'to Ega. There are four of these royal praias within the Ega district (a distance of 150 miles from the town), all of which are visited annually by the Ega people for the purpose of collecting eggs and extracting oil from their yolks. Each has its commander, whose business is to make arrangements for securing to every inhabitant an equal chance in the egg harvest, by placing sentinels to protect the turtles whilst laying, and so forth. The pregnant turtles descend from the interior pools to the main river in July and August, before the out-

lets dry up, and then seek in countless swarms their favourite sand islands; for it is only a few praias that are selected by them out of the great number existing. The young animals remain in the pools throughout the dry season. These breeding-places of turtles then lie twenty to. thirty or more feet above the level of the river, and are accessible only by cutting roads through the dense forest.

We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the sentinels whilst the turtles were yet laying on the 26th of September. Our canoe was a stoutly-built igarité, arranged for ten paddlers, and having a large arched toldo. at the stern, under which three persons could sleep pretty comfortably. In passing down the narrow channel to the mouth of the Teffé, I noticed that the yellow waters of the Solimoens were flowing slowly inwards towards the lake, showing how much fuller and stronger, at this season, was the current of the main river than that of its tributary. On reaching the broad stream, we descended rapidly on the swift current to. the south-eastern or lower end of the large wooded island of Bari, which here divides the river into two great channels. The distance was. about twelve miles: the island of Shimuni lies in the middle of the north-easterly channel, and is reached by passing round the end of Bariad. Two miles further down the broad, wild, and turbid river, lies the small island of Curubara, skirted like the others by a large praia; this is not, however, frequented by turtles, on account of the coarse, gritty nature of the deposit. The sand-banks appear to be formed only where there is a remanso or still water, and the wooded islands to which they are generally attached probably first originated in accumulations of sand. We landed on Curubart; Cardozo wishing to try the pocos (wells, or deep pools) which lie here as in other praias between the sand-bank and its island, for fish and tracajas. The sun was now nearly vertical, and the coarse, heated sand burn* our feet as we trod. We walked, or rather trotted nearly a mile before reaching the pools: there was not a breath of wind nor a cloud to moderate the heat of mid-day, and the Indians who carried the fishing-net suffered greatly. On arriving at the ponds we found the water was quite warm; the net brought up only two or three small fishes, and we thus had our toilsome journey for nothing. Re-embarking, we paddled across to Shimunt, reaching the commencement of the praia an hour before sunset. The island proper is about three miles long and half a mile broad: the forest with which it is covered rises to an immense and uniform height, and presents all round a compact, impervious front. Here and there a singular tree, called Pao mulatito (mulatto wood), with polished dark-green trunk, rose conspicuously amongst the mass of vegetation. The sand-bank, which lies at the upper end of the island, extends several miles, and presents an irregular, and in some parts, strongly waved surface, with deep hollows and ridges. When upon it, one feels as though treading an almost boundless field of sand: for towards the south-east, where no forest-line terminates the view, the white rolling plain stretches away to the horizon. The north-easterly channel of the river, lying between the sands and the further shore of the river, is at least two miles in breadth;

the middle one, between the two islands, Shimunf and Barid, is not much less than a mile. We found the two sentinels lodged in a corner of the praia, where it commences at the foot of the towering forest-wall of the island; having built for themselves a little rancho with poles and palm-leaves. Great precautions are obliged to be taken to avoid disturbing the sensitive turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to lay, assemble in great shoals off the sand-bank. The men, during this time, take care not to show themselves, and warn off any fisherman who wishes to pass near the place. ‘Their fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders of the forest, so that the smoke may not be visible. The passage of a boat through the shallow waters where the animals are congregated, or the sight of a man or a fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles from leaving the water that night to lay their eggs, and if the causes of alarm were repeated once or twice they would forsake the praia for some other quieter place. Soon after we arrived our men were sent with the net to catch a supply of fish for supper. In half an hour four or five large basketfuls of Acari were brought in. The sun set soon after our meal was cooked; we were then obliged to extinguish the fire and remove our supper materials to the sleeping ground, a spit of sand about a mile off; this course being necessary on account of the mosquitoes which swarm at night on the borders of the forest.

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