Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/240

 208 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [June,

midday reached Jukefra, where we had determined to spend another week. There was no regular house here for the accommodation of travellers, so we had to take possession of an unoccupied shed, which the Tushaiia had prepared for us, and where we soon found we were exposed to a pest abundant in all Indians' houses, the " bichos do pe," or chegoes. Nor was this all, for the blood-sucking bats were abundant, and the very first night bit Senhor L., as well as his little boy, who in the morning presented a ghastly sight, both legs being thickly smeared and blotched with blood. There was only one bite on the toe, but the blood flows plentifully, and as the boy was very restless at night, he had managed to produce the sangui- nary effect I have mentioned. Several of the Indians were also bitten, but I escaped by always well wrapping my feet in my blanket.

The paths in the forest here were not so good as those at Jauarite, and produced me very few insects ; the Indians, how- ever, were rather better in bringing me birds and fish. I obtained some very pretty little tanagers, and several new fish. In one lot of small fish brought to me in a calabash were seven different species, five of which were quite new to me. A species of Chakeus, called Jatuarana, was abundant here, and most delicious eating, almost, if not quite, equal to the Waracu, but like it very full of forked spines, which require practice and delicate handling to extract, or they may produce dangerous effects. Several Indians of the Coveu nation, from considerably higher up the river, were staying here. They are distinguished by the ear-lobe being pierced with so large a hole as to be plugged with a piece of wood the size of a common bottle-cork. When we entered their house they set before us, on the ground, smoked fish and madiocca-cake, which Senhor L. informs me is the general custom higher up the river, where the Indians have not lost any of their primitive customs by in- tercourse with the whites. Senhor L. had bought a quantity of " corod " (the fibres of a species of Bromelia, very like flax), and he set these and several other Indians to twist it into thread, which they do by rolling it on their breasts, and form a fine well- twisted two-strand string, of which fine maqueiras are netted. Each one in two or three days produced a ball of string of a quarter of a pound weight, and they were well satisfied with a small basin of salt or half-a-dozen hooks in payment.