Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/398

 over the country, and are connected together by no other ties than a common name and the tradition of general enmity towards the hordes bearing the name of the other nation. Moreover, hordes belonging to the same tribe or nation sometimes quarrel with each other. These petty wars originate in this fashion: a member of a family falls ill, and his or her relations, or the rest of the horde, get hold of the idea that the Pajé of a neighbouring horde has caused the illness by witchcraft; all then assemble for a grand drinking-bout, during which they excite each other by reciting their wrongs. The armed men meet on the following day, and march by intricate paths or circuitous streams, so as to take their enemies by surprise, and then pounce upon them with loud shouts, killing all they can, and burning their huts to the ground.

November 30th.—I left Tunantins in a trading schooner of eighty tons burthen belonging to Senhor Batalha, a tradesman of Ega, which had been out all the summer collecting produce, and was commanded by a friend of mine, a young Paraense, named Francisco Raiol. We arrived, on the 3rd of December, at the mouth of the Jutahí, a considerable stream about half a mile broad, and flowing with a very sluggish current. This is one of a series of six rivers, from 400 to 1000 miles in length, which flow from the southwest through unknown lands lying between Bolivia and the Upper Amazons, and enter this latter river between the Madeira and the Ucayáli. The sources of none of them are known. The longest of the six is the