is the
basis of the Lingoa Geral, the inter-tribal tongue on the Middle Amazon.
The semi-civilized Ticunas, Mundurucus, etc., have one costume--the men
in trowsers and white cotton shirts, the women in calico petticoats,
with short, loose chemises, and their hair held in a knot on the top of
the head by a comb, usually of foreign make, but sometimes made of
bamboo splinters. The wild tribes north and south go nearly or quite
nude, while those on the western tributaries wear cotton or bark togas
or ponchos. The habitations are generally a frame-work of poles,
thatched with palm-leaves; the walls sometimes latticed and plastered
with mud, and the furniture chiefly hammocks and earthen vessels.

[Illustration: Native Comb.]

[Footnote 181: Authors compute in South America from 280 to 700
languages (Abbe Royo said 2000), of which four fifths are composed of
idioms radically distinct.]

The Mundurucus are the most numerous and warlike tribe in Amazonia. They
inhabit both banks of the Tapajos, and can muster, it is said, 2000
fighting men. They are friendly to the whites, and industrious, selling
to traders large quantities of farina, sarsaparilla, rubber, and tonka
beans. Their houses are conical or quadrangular huts, sometimes open
sheds, and generally contain many families. According to Wallace, the
Mundurucus are the only perfectly tattooed nation in South America. It
takes at least ten years to complete the tattooing of the whole person.
The skin is pricked with spines, and then the soot from burning pitch
rubbed in. Their neighbors, the Pararauates, are intractable, wandering
savages, roaming through the forest and sleeping in hammocks slung to
the trees. They have delicately-formed hands and feet, an oval face, and
glistening black eyes. On the west side of the Tapajos, near Villa Nova,
are the Mauhes, an agricultural tribe, well formed, and of a mild
disposition. On the Lower Madeira are the houseless, formidable Araras,
who paint their chins red with achote (anatto), and usually have a black
tattooed streak on each side of the face. They have long made the
navigation of the great tributary hazardous. Above them dwell the
Parentintins, light colored and finely featured, but nude and savage. In
the labyrinth of lakes and channels at the mouth of the Madeira live the
lazy, brutal Muras, the most degraded tribe on the Amazon. They have a
darker skin than their neighbors, an extraordinary breadth of chest,
muscular ar