Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/204

 174 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [March,

were made under great difficulties. I generally returned from the forest about three or four in the afternoon, and if I found a new fish, had to set down immediately to figure it before dark. I was thus exposed to the pest of the sand-flies, which, every afternoon, from four to six, swarm in millions, causing by their bites on the face, ears, and hands, the most painful irritation. Often have I been obliged to start up from my seat, dash down my pencil, and wave my hands about in the cool air to get a little relief. But the sun was getting low, and I must return to my task, till, before I had finished, my hands would be as rough and as red as a boiled lobster, and violently inflamed. Bathing them in cold water, however, and half an hour's rest, would bring them to their natural state ; in which respect the bite of this little insect is far preferable to that of the mosquito, the pium, or the mutuca, the effects of whose bites are felt for days.

The village of Javfta is rather a large one, regularly laid out, and contains about two hundred inhabitants : they are all Indians of pure blood ; I did not see a white man, a mulatto, or a half-breed among them. Their principal occupation is in cutting piassaba in the neighbouring forests, and making cables and cordage of it. They are also the carriers of all goods across the " Estrada de Javita," and, being used to this service from childhood, they will often take two loads a day ten miles each way, with less fatigue than a man not accustomed to the work can carry one. When my Indians accompanied the Javitanos the first time from Pimichin, they could not at all keep up with them, but were, as I have related, obliged to stop halfway. They go along the road at a sort of run, stopping to rest twice only for a few minutes each time. They go over the narrow bridges with the greatest certainty, often two together, carrying heavy loads suspended from a pole between them. Besides this, once or twice a year they will go in a body to clean the road as far as the middle, where there is a cross erected. The inhabitants of Marda, Tdmo, and other villages of the Rio Negro assemble to clean the other half. One of these cleanings occurred while I was there. The whole village, men, women, and children, turned out, the former carrying axes and cutlasses, the latter bundles of switches to serve as brooms. They divided themselves into parties, going on to different parts of the road, and then worked to meet each