Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/373

 OF THR AMAZOtf. 333

Some native tribes exist in the rivers Guama, Capi'm, and Acarra, just above the city of Pari, but I could learn little definite about them. High up the rivers Tocantfns and Araguaya, there are numerous tribes of tall well-formed Indians, some of whom I have seen in Para, where they arrive in canoes from the interior. Most of them have enormously elongated ears hanging down on their shoulders, produced probably by weights suspended from the lobe in youth. On the Xingii are many native tribes, some of whom were visited by Prince Adalbert. On the next river, the Tapajoz, dwell the Mundrucus, and they extend far into the interior, across to the Madeira and to the river Purus ; they are a very numerous tribe, and portions of them are now civilised. The Maras, another of the populous tribes, are also partly civilised, about the mouths of the Madeira and Rio Negro ; but in the interior, and up the river Puriis, many yet live in a totally wild and savage state.

All along the banks of the main streams of the Amazon, Solimoes, Madeira, and Rio Negro, live Indians of various races, in a semi-civilised state, and with their peculiar habits and languages in a great measure lost. Traces of these pecu- liarities are, however, still to be found, in the painted pottery manufactured at Breves, the elegant calabashes of Montealegre, the curious baskets of some tribes on the Rio Negro, and the calabashes of Ega, always painted in geometrical patterns.

Commencing near Santarem, and extending among all the half-civilised Indians of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and other rivers, the Lingoa Geral, or general Indian language, is spoken. Near the more populous towns and villages, it is used indis- criminately with the Portuguese ; a little further, it is often the only language known ; and far up in the interior it exists in common with the native language of the tribe to which the in- habitants belong. Thus on the Lower Amazon, all the Indians can speak both Portuguese and Lingoa Geral ; on the Solimoes and Rio Negro, Lingoa Geral alone is generally spoken ; and in the interior, on the lakes and tributaries of the Solimoes, the Miira and Juri tongues are in common use, with the Lingoa Geral as a means of communication with the traders. Near the sources of the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, the Barre" and Baniwa languages are those used among the Indians them- selves.