Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/395

 on purpose to obstruct the way to their habitations. Half-a-mile of this shady road brought me to a small open space on the banks of a brook or creek, on the skirts of which stood a conical hut with a very low doorway. There was also an open shed, with stages made of split palm-stems, and a number of large wooden troughs. Two or three dark-skinned children, with a man and woman, were in the shed; but, immediately on espying me, all of them ran to the hut, bolting through the little doorway like so many wild animals scared into their burrows. A few moments after, the man put his head out with a look of great distrust; but, on my making the most friendly gestures I could think of, he came forth with the children. They were all smeared with black mud and paint; the only clothing of the elders was a kind of apron made of the inner bark of the sapucaya-tree, and the savage aspect of the man was heightened by his hair hanging over his forehead to the eyes. I stayed about two hours in the neighbourhood, the children gaining sufficient confidence to come and help me to search for insects. The only weapon used by the Caishánas is the blow-pipe, and this is employed only in shooting animals for food. They are not a warlike people, like most of the neighbouring tribes on the Japurá and Issá. Their utensils consist of earthenware cooking-vessels, wooden stools, drinking-cups of gourds, and the usual apparatus for making farinha, of which they produce a considerable quantity, selling the surplus to traders at Tunantins.

The whole tribe of Caishánas does not exceed in number 400 souls. None of them are baptised Indians,