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At the first house a festival was going forward.We anchored at some distance from the shore, on account of the water being shoaly, and early in the morning three canoes put off, laden with salt fish, oil of manatee, fowls and bananas-- wares which the owners wished to exchange for different articles required for the festa.Soon after I went ashore.The head man was a tall, well-made, civilised Tapuyo, named Marcellino, who, with his wife, a thin, active, wiry old squaw, did the honours of their house, Ithought, admirably.The company consisted of fifty or sixty Indians and Mamelucos; some of them knew Portuguese, but the Tupi language was the only one used amongst themselves.The festival was in honour of our Lady of Conception; and, when the people learnt that Penna had on board an image of the saint handsomer than their own, they put off in their canoes to borrow it;Marcellino taking charge of the doll, covering it carefully with a neatly-bordered white towel.On landing with the image, a procession was formed from the port to the house, and salutes fired from a couple of lazarino guns, the saint being afterwards carefully deposited in the family oratorio.After a litany and hymn were sung in the evening, all assembled to supper around a large mat spread on a smooth terrace-like space in front of the house.The meal consisted of a large boiled Pirarucu, which had been harpooned for the purpose in the morning, stewed and roasted turtle, piles of mandioca-meal and bananas.The old lady, with two young girls, showed the greatest activity in waiting on the guests, Marcellino standing gravely by, observing what was wanted and giving the necessary orders to his wife.When all was done, hard drinking began, and soon after there was a dance, to which Penna and I were invited.The liquor served was chiefly a spirit distilled by the people themselves from mandioca cakes.The dances were all of the same class, namely, different varieties of the "Landum," an erotic dance similar to the fandango, originally learned from the Portuguese.The music was supplied by a couple of wire-stringed guitars, played alternately by the young men.

All passed off very quietly considering the amount of strong liquor drunk, and the ball was kept up until sunrise the next morning.

We visited all the houses one after the other.One of them was situated in a charming spot, with a broad sandy beach before it, at the entrance to the Parana-mirim do Mucambo, a channel leading to an interior lake, peopled by savages of the Mura tribe.This seemed to be the abode of an industrious family, but all the men were absent, salting Pirarucu on the lakes.The house, like its neighbours, was simply a framework of poles thatched with palm-leaves, the walls roughly latticed and plastered with mud; but it was larger, and much cleaner inside than the others.It was full of women and children, who were busy all day with their various employments; some weaving hammocks in a large clumsy frame, which held the warp while the shuttle was passed by the hand slowly across the six foot breadth of web; others were spinning cotton, and others again scraping, pressing, and roasting mandioca.The family had cleared and cultivated a large piece of ground; the soil was of extraordinary richness, the perpendicular banks of the river, near the house, revealing a depth of many feet of crumbling vegetable mould.There was a large plantation of tobacco, besides the usual patches of Indian-corn, sugar-cane, and mandioca; and a grove of cotton, cacao, coffee, and fruit-trees surrounded the house.We passed two nights at anchor in shoaly water off the beach.The weather was most beautiful, and scores of Dolphins rolled and snorted about the canoe all night.

We crossed the river at this point, and entered a narrow channel which penetrates the interior of the island of Tupinambarana, and leads to a chain of lakes called the Lagos de Cararaucu.Afurious current swept along the coast, eating into the crumbling earthy banks, and strewing the river with debris of the forest.