sheds. One of these rooms
was used for the various processes by which the mandioca root is
transformed into farinha, tapioca, and tucupi, a kind of intoxicating
liquor. It was furnished with the large clay ovens, covered with immense
shallow copper pans, for drying the farinha, with the troughs for
kneading the mandioca, the long straw tubes for expressing the juice,
and the sieves for straining the tapioca. The mandioca room is an
important part of every Indian _sitio_; for the natives not only depend,
in a great degree, upon the different articles manufactured from this
root for their own food, but it makes an essential part of the commerce
of the Amazons. Another of these open rooms was a kitchen; while a
third, which served as our dining-room, is used on festa days and
occasional Sundays as a chapel. It differed from the rest in having the
upper end closed in with a neat thatched wall, against which, in time of
need, the altar-table may stand, with candles and rough prints or
figures of the Virgin and Saints. A little removed from this more
central part of the establishment was another smaller mud house, where
most of the party arranged their hammocks; Mr. Agassiz and myself being
accommodated in the other one, where we were very hospitably received by
the senhora of the _sitio_, an old Indian woman, whose gold ornaments,
necklace, and ear-rings were rather out of keeping with her calico skirt
and cotton waist. This is, however, by no means an unusual combination
here. Beside the old lady, the family consisted, at this moment, of her
_afilhada_ (god-daughter), with her little boy, and several other women
employed about the place; but it is difficult to judge of the population
of the _sitios_ now, because a great number of the men have been taken
as recruits for the war with Paraguay, and others are hiding in the
forest for fear of being pressed into the same service.

The breakfast-table, covered with dishes of fish fresh from the lake,
and dressed in a variety of ways, with stewed chicken, rice, etc., was
by no means an unwelcome sight, as it was already eleven o'clock, and we
had had nothing since rising, at half past five in the morning, except a
hot cup of coffee; nor was the meal the less appetizing that it was
spread under the palm-thatched roof of our open, airy dining-room,
surrounded by the forest, and commanding a view of the lake and wooded
hillside opposite, the little landing below, where were moored our