Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/400

 356 ON THE ABORIGINES

nations of the native American race, known only by the reports of the border tribes, who form the communication between them and the traders of the great rivers.

One of the best-known and most regularly visited rivers of this great tract is the Puriis, whose mouth is a short distance above the Rio Negro, but whose sources, a three months' voyage does not reach. Of the Indians found on the banks of this river I have been able to get some information. Five tribes are met with by the traders : — i. Muras, from the mouth to sixteen days' voyage up.

2. Purupuriis, from thence to about thirty days' voyage up.

3. Catauxis, in the district of the Purupuriis, but in the igaripes and lakes inland.

4. Jamamaris, inland on the west bank.

5. Jubiris, on the river-banks above the Purupuriis.

The Miiras are rather a tall race, have a good deal of beard for Indians, and the hair of the head is slightly crisp and wavy. They used formerly to go naked, but now the men all wear trousers and shirts, and the women petticoats. Their houses are grouped together in small villages, and are scarcely ever more than a roof supported on posts ; very rarely do they take the trouble to build any walls. They make no hammocks, but hang up three bands of a bark called "invira," on which they sleep ; but the more civilised now purchase of the traders hammocks made by other Indians. They practise scarcely any cultivation, except sometimes a little mandiocca, but generally live on wild fruits, and abundance of fish and game : their food is entirely produced by the river, consisting of the Manatus, or cow-fish, which is as good as beef, turtles, and various kinds of fish, all of which are in great abundance, so that the traders say there are no people who live so well as the Miiras ; they have therefore no occasion for gravatanas, which they do not make, but have a great variety of bows and arrows and harpoons, and construct very good canoes. They now all cut their hair ; the old men have a large hole in their lower lip filled up with a piece of wood, but this custom is now disused. Each man has two or three wives, but there is no ceremony of marriage ; and they bury their dead some- times in the house, but more commonly outside, and put all the goods of the deceased upon his grave. The women use necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the men tie the seeds