Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/247

 He seemed to have many questions to ask: but they were chiefly about Senhora Felippa, Cardozo's Indian housekeeper at Ega, and were purely complimentary. This studied politeness is quite natural to Indians of the advanced agricultural tribes. The language used was Tupí: I heard no other spoken all the day. It must be borne in mind that Pedro-uassú had never had much intercourse with whites: he was, although baptised, a primitive Indian, who had always lived in retirement; the ceremony of baptism having been gone through, as it generally is by the aborigines, simply from a wish to stand well with the whites.

Arrived at the house, we were welcomed by Pedro's wife: a thin, wrinkled, active old squaw, tattooed in precisely the same way as her husband. She had also sharp features, but her manner was more cordial and quicker than that of her husband: she talked much, and with great inflection of voice; whilst the tones of the old man were rather drawling and querulous. Her clothing was a long petticoat of thick cotton cloth, and a very short chemise, not reaching to her waist. I was rather surprised to find the grounds around the establishment in neater order than in any sitio, even of civilised people, I had yet seen on the Upper Amazons: the stock of utensils and household goods of all sorts was larger, and the evidences of regular industry and plenty more numerous than one usually perceives in the farms of civilised Indians and whites. The buildings were of the same construction as those of the humbler settlers in all other parts of the country. The family lived in a large, oblong, open shed built under the