Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/399

 OF THE AMAZON. 355

game more than fish for food. No civilised man has ever been among them, so they have no salt, and a very scanty supply of iron, and obtain fire by friction. It is said also that they differ from most other tribes in making no intoxicating drinks. Their language is full of harsh and aspirated sounds, and is somewhat allied to those of the Tucanos and Cobeus among the Uaupds.

In the lower part of the Japura" reside the " Uaenambeus," or Humming-bird Indians. I met with some of them in the Rio Negro, and obtained some information as to their customs and language. In most particulars they much resemble the last-mentioned tribe, particularly in their circular houses, their food, and mode of life. Like them they weave the fibres of the Tuciim palm-leaf {Astrocaryum vulgare) to make their hammocks, whereas the Uaupes and Isanna Indians always use the leaf of the Miriti (Mauritia flexuosa). They are dis- tinguished from other tribes by a small blue mark on the upper lip. They have from one to four wives, and the women always wear a small apron of bark.

Closely allied to these are the Juris of the Solimoes, between the Iga and Japura. A number of them have migrated to the Rio Negro, and become settled and partly civilised there. They are remarkable for a custom of tattooing in a circle (not in a square, as in a plate in Dr. Prichard's work) round the mouth, so as exactly to resemble the little black-mouthed squirrel-monkeys (Callithrix sriureus) ; from this cause they are often called the Juripixunas (Black Juris), or by the#Brazilians "Bocapreitos" (Black-mouths). From this strange errors have arisen : we find in some maps the note " Juries, curly-haired Negroes," whereas they are pure straight-haired Indians. They are good servants for canoe and agricultural work, and are the most skilful of all in the use of the gravatana, or blow-pipe.

In the same neighbourhood are Miranhas, who are canni- bals ; and the Ximanas and Cauxanas, who kill all their first- born children : in fact, between the Upper Amazon, the Guaviare, and the Andes, there is a region as large as England, whose inhabitants are entirely uncivilised and unknown.

On the south side of the Amazon also, between the Madeira and the Uaycali, and extending to the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, is a still larger tract of unknown virgin forest, unin- habited by a single civilised man : here reside numerous