Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/216

 186 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [April,

axes, in the same proportion. On the way, I got these Tomo Indians to give me a vocabulary of their language, which differs from that of the villages above and below them. We paddled by day, and floated down by night ; and as the current was now tremendous, we got on so quickly, that in three days we reached Marabitanas, a distance which had taken us nine in going up.

Here I stayed a week with the Commandante, who had invited me when at Guia. I, however, did little in the collect- ing way : there were no paths in the forest, and no insects, and very few birds worth shooting. I obtained some very curious half-spiny rodent animals, and a pretty white-marked bird, allied to the starlings, which appears here only once a year in flocks, and is called " Ciuci uera " (the star-bird).

The inhabitants of Marabitanas are celebrated for their festas : their lives are spent, half at their festas, and the other half in preparing for them. They consume immense quantities of raw spirit, distilled from cane-juice and from the mandiocca : at a festa which took place while I was here, there was about a hogshead of strong spirit consumed, all drunk raw. In every house, where the dancing takes place, there are three or four persons constantly going round with a bottle and glass, and no one is expected ever to refuse ; they keep on the whole night, and the moment you have tasted one glass, another succeeds, and you must at least take a sip of it. The Indians empty the glass every time ; and this continues for two or three days. When all is finished, the inhabitants return to their sitios, and commence the preparation of a fresh lot of spirit for the next occasion.

About a fortnight before each festa — which is always on a Saint's day of the Roman Catholic Church — a party of ten or a dozen of the inhabitants go round, in a canoe, to all the sitios and Indian villages within fifty or a hundred miles, carrying the image of the saint, flags, and music. They are entertained at every house, the saint is kissed, and presents are made for the feast ; one gives a fowl, another some eggs or a bunch of plantains, another a few coppers. The live animals are fre- quently promised beforehand for a particular saint ; and often, when I have wanted to buy some provisions, I have been assured that "that is St. John's pig," or that "those fowls belong to the Holy Ghost."