no logs and uprooted trees, with their cargoes of gulls, scarcely
any stream, and few signs of life in the black and sluggish waters. Yet
when there is a storm, there are greater and more dangerous waves than
on the Amazon. At Barra the Rio Negro is a mile and a half wide. A few
miles up it widens considerably, in many places forming deep bays eight
or ten miles across.

In this region are found the umbrella birds. One evening a specimen was
brought me by a hunter. This singular bird is about the size of a raven.
On its head it bears a crest, different from that of any other bird. It
can be laid back so as to be hardly visible, or can be erected and
spread out on every side, forming a hemispherical dome, completely
covering the head. In a month I obtained 25 specimens of the umbrella
bird.

The river Uaupes is a tributary of the Upper Rio Negro, and a voyage up
this stream brought us into singular regions. Our canoe was worked by
Indians. In one of the Indian villages we witnessed a grand snake dance.
The dancers were entirely unclad, but were painted in all kinds of
curious designs, and the male performers wear on the top of the head a
fine broad plume of the tail-coverts of the white egret. The Indians
keep these noble birds in great open houses or cages; but as the birds
are rare, and the young with difficulty secured, the ornament is one
that few possess. Cords of monkeys' hair, decorated with small feathers,
hang down the back, and in the ears are the little downy plumes, forming
altogether a most imposing and elegant headdress.

The paint with which both men and women decorate their bodies has a very
neat effect, and gives them almost the aspect of being dressed, and as
such they seem to regard it. The dancers had made two huge artificial
snakes of twigs and branches bound together, from thirty to forty feet
long and a foot in diameter, painted a bright red colour. This made
altogether a very formidable looking animal. They divided themselves
into two parties of about a dozen each and, lifting the snake on their
shoulders, began dancing.

In the dance they imitated the undulations of the serpent, raising the
head and twisting the tail. In the manoeuvres which followed, the two
great snakes seemed to fight, till the dance, which had greatly pleased
all the spectators, was concluded.

_VI.--Devil-Music_

In another village I first saw and heard the "Juripari", or devil-music
of the Indians. One evening ther