The present paper relates to short visits made to certain native tribes of the Purus River, western Brazil, and the collections and data obtained. Two days' steam of the Amazon brought us to the mouth of the Purus, now, on the 1st of March, rising rapidly with the daily rains. Although most settlements are of this type, in Canutama and Labria towns of several hundred inhabitants have sprung up.
Near the mouth of the Ituchy the steamer stopped at the little station of San Luis de Cassyana, the property of Coronel Gomez, who. He also said that the savages were two or three days1 journey up the river or so far downstream, and that he had heard that they had recently eon, down to near the month. The next morning, Senhor Joao, like the Indians, went barefoot as he took Antonio and Leocardo out toward the mouth of the stream.
There seemed to be nothing on the premises to eat except. a bunch of palm fruits he had just brought in by canoe; but Pedro climbed to the roof of the shack and got four fish. They were also of bark, but much better made than those of the Hypurines, the ends being raised and sewn together to form a hollow beak.
NAT MUS 1901— 21
Another hammock with three long strips of bark (primitive type of hammock?) was slung under the hut. with rough clay pots for cooking, seemed to include his household goods. This process is called "moquiar" in the Amazon and is probably used by all tribes. Pedro was easily persuaded to accompany us to the river, and seemed to think nothing of leaving his wife and sick baby alone in the forest.
Our party, now alive, embarked in one of these canoes, all flat on the bottom, and Pedro found that we were so deep that the Water running into the open ends had worked them with clay. After three hours of this we reached so much fallen timber that we could follow the river no further, so we drew our boat ashore and proceeded on foot. Some of these grew up to 100 feet tall, while others were remnants of the cultivated plants, bananas, pineapples, and pupunya palms.
370 REPORT OF
Some of them were dressed only in the thong, others had some civilized clothes, a shirt or a pair of trousers, and one young fellow had an old Derby hat on. Another younger cloth sits crouched on his heels on the ground, bare but for his thong. He was weaving a large basket of vines to serve as a cage for a large gray monkey which had just been brought from the forest and was lying by his side, bound hand and foot, snapping and growling at everything near .
A tire was burning on the ground near the hut we approached, that of the old chief and one of their own. As soon as it was cooked, the dish was brought to me, while the others baked it and ate the roasted corn in the lyre. The old chief when asked when they would have plenty of sweet manihot, made the strange cry to answer; that is, in the dry season when the cicadas sang, they would celebrate the manihot.
Senor Joao spoke "lingoa geral" which the older men of the tribe understood. The old chief, under whose roof we took refuge, was generally called " Schau Assiic," taken from Tuchau Assucar, meaning chief of sugar, but he gave his name in his.
NATIONAL MUSEUM,
373 under the breast, and wrapping the end of a small poisoned arrow with silken cotton to make it fit into the bore of the gtin, and filling his lungs with lie. blew the arrow into the top of a tall tree that stood on the edge of the nearby forest. Plate 6.). Then he took his blowgun and how-ami arrows on his shoulders, stooped down and crept quietly through the forest, carefully looking at the flat side, and then he got the. As he went where the arrows struck, he made marks on the ground with his fingertips to represent the tracks of the wounded game; and after following it a short distance, he stooped and spread his hands before him, palms downwards, to show...
Senor Joao asked Schau Assuc to show us how the different birds and animals sang, and he gave us the notes of the parrots and toucans, and then the cries of the tapirs, peccaries and monkeys, all with a beautiful resemblance to life . Our Indians, the Ilypurinas, had prepared their baskets of ripe grain, apparently without bothering to ask for leave, and... taking a young Jamamadi along to carry part of our load to the river, we set out on the way to our return. From what I could gather, the Jamamadi have now been reduced to two or three small settlements, like the one we visited, all on the Marmorea.
On reaching the river, and getting back into Pedro Bom's boat, we were overtaken by a great storm of rain, which lasted until we were nearly at the station of San Joao. Bui Senor Joao had only 15 or 20 men at work, and little chance of getting more, as the station is 50 miles from the rude settlements of the Purus below. The location also appeared to be unhealthy, as some of his men were suffering from fever.
The owners were away down the river hunting expedition, except for Pedro Bom, who has gone up the river where we had found him.
374 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901
THE HYPURINAS
They have the same habit of snuff which has already been described for the Jamaadi and the Paumari'. They were cannibals up to the time of the river's settlement, and it is said that the cust is still held in the villages not yet reached by civilization. Though warlike, they have never attacked the invading colonists, as the wild tribes around the rapids of Madeira have done.
One of them was seen in use, made of three solitary broad strips of bark, tied together at the ends. They keep the bones of their dead, wrap them in bundles, and hang them on the roof of one of their houses, which are abandoned for this purpose. There was no difference between the wall and the roof, the thatched roof reached the ground.
Their method of cultivation is similar to that of the Jamamadi already described, but their fields are much smaller and less carefully tended.
377 tomed to gather together for great feasts. These are accompanied
SONGS OF THE HYPURINAS
LIST OF WORDS FROM HYPURINA
380 NATIONAL MUSEUM,
THE JAMAMADI
The hair on the temples is allowed to fall to eye level, where it is cut straight to the ear. The men generally wear a narrow belt of cords with a tassel of feathers or anta's (tapir's) hoofs on one side (Plate I. This habit is common among them, the women also use it, the hut not being so often or so open as theirs.
They are then stretched on sticks over the fire until they are completely dry. The red rake from the root of certain shrubs scraped to clean it of dead rake and earth and is. One of these put as much as half or a fourth of a teaspoonful of the snuff into the palm of his hand and held it.
382 REPOKT NATIONAL MUSEUM,
A few of the longer ones reached the top above where they were put together (Fig. 10). This was made of strips 2 feet in width and 8 or l<> in length of the leaves of the earanai palm, split and plaited over a narrow piece of wood. The first thatch was laid on the foot of the rafters, just above the lower posts, and carefully fastened to each rafter, the strips being tied end to end, so as to reach round the building.
There were no doors or windows, the spaces between the pillars of the outer circle and under the lower layer of straw serving as entrance and light and air. The entire building was very carefully crafted, even the vines that held it together were peeled and scraped (fig. 11). The Jamamads abandoned this large building due to the plague and erected several sheds 14 feet square with thatched roofs.
Fig. 11.-Detail of the construction of the Jamamadi Indian house, a, external posts; b, internal pillars; c, pillar that separates the rooms; d, lower ring; c, upper circle; r, rafter. These were much like the poorer dwellings of Tapuio, and probably made in imitation of them.
385 The first civilized men to visit them s;iy they were then girdling the
386 REPORT OF
LIST OF WORDS OF JAMAMADI
THE PAUMARI
388 REPORT
They pierce the lips and the septum of the nose, usually wear wooden plugs in the openings, but are said to wear the tusks of wild animals on feast days. When the rum was given, they pushed the corks in carefully so as not to lose any of the liquor. The green leaves are roasted over the belt and powdered into small mortars made from the shell of the Brazil nut (Plate8, tig. 3) and then mixed with ash.
A quarter or half teaspoon of snuff is placed in the palm of the hand or in a shell, which is drawn with one or two long breaths. They spend a large part of their lives in their canoes; these are narrow excavations 12 or 11 feet long and sharp at both ends (Plate 9). Their oars are long and narrow, instead of being round like those of the Tapui.
A Paumarl would often be seen walking along the edge of his bartuk canoe, carrying his family and all his possessions, at the new fishing resorts, his wife sitting at the edge with a steering paddle carrying the canoe from shore. They live in small oven-shaped huts, so low that they have to climb on their hands and knees to enter them. These are made of long, narrow mats of palm leaves, spread over a frame of bent sticks stuck into the ground at both ends.
Here they remain, rising and falling with the high and low tides until the dry season exposes the sandbanks again. Long ago, the people of their tribe built their villages only on the land, like the other tribes, but at some point the Hood rose to a much greater height than normal and covered the sandbars and then the lowlands.
390 REPORT OF
LIST OF WORDS OF THE PAUMARL
392 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901
SENTENCES FROM THE PAUMARI
PAUMARI SONGS
