Henry Walter Bates

“ In striking contrast to these dark, rolling forests is the vivid, light-green and cheerful foliage of the woods on the numerous islets which rest like water-gardens on the surface of the lake. Flocks of ducks, storks, and snow-white herons inhabit these islets, and a noise of parrots with the tingling chorus of Tamburí-parás was heard from them as we passed. This has a cheering effect after the depressing stillness and absence of life in the woods on the margins of the main river. ”

“ Towards the middle of July the sand-banks begin to reappear above the surface of the waters, and with this change come flocks of sandpipers and gulls, which latter make known the advent of the fine season, as the cuckoo does of the European spring; uttering almost incessantly their plaintive cries as they fly about over the shallow waters of sandy shores. Most of the gaily-plumaged birds have now finished moulting, and begin to be more active in the forest. ”

“ The coast for the greater part of the distance affords no shelter: there are, however, a number of little harbours, called esperas, which the canoe-men calculate upon, carefully arranging each night-voyage so as to reach one of them before the wind begins the next morning.
We left Aveyros in the evening of the 21st, and sailed gently down with the soft land-breeze, keeping about a mile from the eastern shore. It was a brilliant moonlit night, and the men worked cheerfully at the oars, when the wind was slack; the terral wafting from the forest a pleasant perfume like that of mignonette. ”

“ August 5th.—The river reminds me of some parts of the Jaburú channel, being hemmed in by two walls of forest rising to the height of at least 100 feet, and the outlines of the trees being concealed throughout by a dense curtain of leafy creepers. The impression of vegetable profusion and overwhelming luxuriance increases at every step. The deep and narrow valley of the Cuparí has a moister climate than the banks of the Tapajos. We have now frequent showers, whereas we left everything parched up by the sun at Aveyros. ”

“ The banks of all the streams are dotted with palm-thatched dwellings of Tucúnas, all half-buried in the leafy wilderness, the scattered families having chosen the coolest and shadiest nooks for their abodes.
I frequently heard in the neighbourhood of these huts, the "realejo" or organ bird (Cyphorhinus cantans) , the most remarkable songster, by far, of the Amazonian forests. When its singular notes strike the ear for the first time, the impression cannot be resisted that they are produced by a human voice. ”

“ The Parárauátes were a tribe of intractable savages with whom the Mundurucús have been always at war. They had no fixed abode, and of course made no plantations, but passed their lives like the wild beasts, roaming through the forest, guided by the sun: wherever they found themselves at night-time there they slept, slinging their bast hammocks, which are carried by the women, to the trees. ”

“ The greater it is the more abundant is the season. Every one is prosperous when the waters are low; the shallow bays and pools being then crowded with the concentrated population of fish and turtle. All the people, men, women, and children, leave the villages and spend the few weeks of glorious weather rambling over the vast undulating expanses of sand in the middle of the Solimoens, fishing, hunting, collecting eggs of turtle and plovers, and thoroughly enjoying themselves. The inhabitants pray always for a "vasante grande," or great ebb. ”

“ I noticed here altogether eighty species, belonging to twenty-two different genera. It is a singular fact that, with very few exceptions, all the individuals of these various species thus sporting in sunny places were of the male sex; their partners, which are much more soberly dressed and immensely less numerous than the males, being confined to the shades of the woods. Every afternoon, as the sun was getting low, I used to notice these gaudy sunshine-loving swains trooping off to the forest, where I suppose they would find their sweethearts and wives. ”

“ The houses of the Mundurucús to the number of about thirty are scattered along the banks for a distance of six or seven miles. The owners appear to have chosen all the most picturesque sites—tracts of level ground at the foot of wooded heights, or little havens with bits of white sandy beach—as if they had an appreciation of natural beauty. Most of the dwellings are conical huts, with walls of framework filled in with mud and thatched with palm leaves, the broad eaves reaching halfway to the ground. ”

“ Carepíra was foremost: having borrowed a small and very unsteady boat of Cardozo, and embarked in it with his little son. After bagging a couple of turtles, and whilst hauling in a third, he overbalanced himself: the canoe went over, and he with his child had to swim for their lives, in the midst of numerous alligators, about a mile from the land. The old man had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from his companions for several days after this mishap. Such accidents are only laughed at by this almost amphibious people. ”

“ Both were intrepid canoemen and huntsmen, and both perfectly at home anywhere in these fearful wastes of forest and water. Carepíra had his son with him, a quiet little lad of about nine years of age. These men in a few minutes constructed a small shed with four upright poles and leaves of the arrow-grass, under which I and Cardozo slung our hammocks. We did not go to sleep, however, until after midnight: for when supper was over we lay about on the sand with a flask of rum in our midst, and whiled away the still hours in listening to Carepíra's stories. ”

“ The purity of Tupí is kept up by frequent communication amongst the natives, from one end to the other of the main river; how complete and long-continued must be the isolation in which the small groups of savages have lived in other parts, to have caused so complete a segregation of dialects! It is probable that the strange inflexibility of the Indian organisation, both bodily and mental, is owing to the isolation in which each small tribe has lived, and to the narrow round of life and thought, and close intermarriages for countless generations, which are the necessary results. ”

“ As in all the semi-civilised villages where the original orderly and industrious habits of the Indian have been lost without anything being learnt from the whites to make amends, the inhabitants live in the greatest poverty. The scarcity of fish in the clear waters and rocky bays of the neighbourhood is no doubt partly the cause of the poverty and perennial hunger which reign here. When we arrived in the port our canoe was crowded with the half-naked villagers—men, women, and children, who came to beg each a piece of salt pirarucu "for the love of God." ”

“ The path to the cattle farm led first through a tract of swampy forest; it then ascended a slope and emerged on a fine sweep of prairie, varied with patches of timber. The wooded portion occupied the hollows where the soil was of a rich chocolate-brown colour, and of a peaty nature. The higher grassy undulating parts of the campo had a lighter and more sandy soil. Leaving our friends, I and José took our guns and dived into the woods in search of the monkeys. ”

“ The cargo had been placed too far forward, and to make matters worse my heavy friend obstinately insisted on sitting astride on the top of the pile, instead of taking his place near the stern; singing from his perch a most indecent love-song, and disregarding the inconvenience of having to bend down almost every minute to pass under the boughs and hanging sipós as we sped rapidly along. The canoe leaked, but not, at first, alarmingly. Long before sunset, darkness began to close in under these gloomy shades, and our steersman could not avoid now and then running the boat into the thicket. ”

“ I saw it very frequently on the banks of the Upper Amazons, where it was always a treat to watch a flock leaping amongst the trees, for it is the most wonderful performer in this line of the whole tribe. The troops consist of thirty or more individuals which travel in single file. When the foremost of the flock reaches the outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree, he springs forth into the air without a moment's hesitation and alights on the dome of yielding foliage belonging to the neighbouring tree, maybe fifty feet beneath ”

“ There was not much green underwood, except in places where Bamboos grew; these formed impenetrable thickets of plumy foliage and thorny, jointed stems, which always compelled us to make a circuit to avoid them. The earth elsewhere was encumbered with rotting fruits, gigantic bean-pods, leaves, limbs, and trunks of trees, fixing the impression of its being the cemetery as well as the birthplace of the great world of vegetation overhead. ”

“ The finest tribes of savages who inhabit the country near Ega are the Jurís and Passés: these are now, however, nearly extinct, a few families only remaining on the banks of the retired creeks connected with the Teffé, and on other branch rivers between the Teffé and the Jutahí. They are a peaceable, gentle, and industrious people, devoted to agriculture and fishing, and have always been friendly to the whites. I shall have occasion to speak again of the Passés, who are a slenderly-built and superior race of Indians, distinguished by a large, square tattooed patch in the middle of their faces. ”

“ Our Maracaná used to accompany us sometimes in our rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. One day, in the middle of a long forest road, it was missed, having clung probably to an overhanging bough and escaped into the thickets without the boy perceiving it. Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same path, a voice greeted us in a colloquial tone as we passed "Maracaná!" We looked about for some time, but could not see anything until the word was repeated with emphasis "Maracaná-á!" when we espied the little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. ”

“ The stiff clayey eminence is worn into deep gullies which slope towards the river, and the ascent from the port in rainy weather is so slippery that one is obliged to crawl up to the streets on all fours. A large tract of ground behind the place is clear of forest, but this, as well as the streets and gardens, is covered with a dense, tough carpet of shrubs, having the same wiry nature as our common heath. Beneath its deceitful covering the soil is always moist and soft, and in the wet season the whole is converted into a glutinous mud swamp. ”

“ The coldness of the shy Indian and Mameluco maidens never failed to give way after a little of this strong drink, but it was astonishing what an immense deal they could take of it in the course of an evening. Coyness is not always a sign of innocence in these people, for most of the half-caste women on the Upper Amazons lead a little career of looseness before they marry and settle down for life; and it is rather remarkable that the men do not seem to object much to their brides having had a child or two by various fathers before marriage. ”

“ I have often watched the rain-clouds in November and December, when the shrubby vegetation is parched up by the glowing sun of the preceding three months, rise as they approached the hot air over the campos, or diverge from it to discharge their contents on the low forest-clad islands of the opposite shore. The trade-wind, however, blows with great force during the dry months; the hotter the weather the stronger is the breeze, until towards the end of the season it amounts to a gale, stopping the progress of downward-bound vessels. ”

“ It is a far more useful weapon in the forest than a gun, for the report of a firearm alarms the whole flock of birds or monkeys feeding on a tree, whilst the silent poisoned dart brings the animals down one by one until the sportsman has a heap of slain by his side. ”

“ They stream along the ground and climb to the summits of all the lower trees, searching every leaf to its apex, and whenever they encounter a mass of decaying vegetable matter, where booty is plentiful, they concentrate, like other Ecitons, all their forces upon it, the dense phalanx of shining and quickly-moving bodies, as it spreads over the surface, looking like a flood of dark-red liquid. They soon penetrate every part of the confused heap, and then, gathering together again in marching order, onward they move. ”

“ In all other matters not concerning the common wants of life the mind of Vicente was a blank, and such I always found to be the case with the Indian in his natural state. Would a community of any race of men be otherwise, were they isolated for centuries in a wilderness like the Amazonian Indians, associated in small numbers wholly occupied in procuring a mere subsistence, and without a written language, or a leisured class to hand down acquired knowledge from generation to generation? ”

“ It is curious to watch a Termitarium when this exodus is taking place. The workers are set in the greatest activity, as if they were aware that the very existence of their species depended on the successful emigration and marriages of their brothers and sisters. They clear the way for their bulky but fragile bodies, and bite holes through the outer walls for their escape. The exodus is not completed in one day, but continues until all the males and females have emerged from their pupa integuments, and flown away. ”

“ Those Brazilians who are old enough to remember the times of warfare between Indians and settlers, retain a great horror of the turé, its loud harsh note heard in the dead of the night having been often the prelude to an onslaught of bloodthirsty Múras on the outlying settlements. ”