It was not all work at Catua; indeed there was rather more play than work going on.The people make a kind of holiday of these occasions.Every fine night parties of the younger people assembled on the sands, and dancing and games were carried on for hours together.But the requisite liveliness for these sports was never got up without a good deal of preliminary rum-drinking.The girls were so coy that the young men could not get sufficient partners for the dances without first subscribing for a few flagons of the needful cashaca.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.The women do not lose reputation unless they become utterly depraved, but in that case they are condemned pretty strongly by public opinion.Depravity is, however, rare, for all require more or less to be wooed before they are won.I did not see (although I mixed pretty freely with the young people) any breach of propriety on the praias.The merry-makings were carried on near the ranchos, where the more staid citizens of Ega, husbands with their wives and young daughters, all smoking gravely out of long pipes, sat in their hammocks and enjoyed the fun.Towards midnight we often heard, in the intervals between jokes and laughter, the hoarse roar of jaguars prowling about the jungle in the middle of the praia.There were several guitar-players among the young men, and one most persevering fiddler--so there was no lack of music.
The favourite sport was the Pira-purasseya, or fish-dance, one of the original games of the Indians, though now probably a little modified.The young men and women, mingling together, formed a ring, leaving one of their number in the middle, who represented the fish.They then all marched round, Indian file, the musicians mixed up with the rest, singing a monotonous but rather pretty chorus, the words of which were invented (under a certain form)by one of the party who acted as leader.This finished, all joined hands, and questions were put to the one in the middle, asking what kind of fish he or she might be.To these the individual has to reply.The end of it all is that he makes a rush at the ring, and if he succeeds in escaping, the person who allowed him to do so has to take his place; the march and chorus then recommences, and so the game goes on hour after hour.Tupi was the language mostly used, but sometimes Portuguese was sung and spoken.The details of the dance were often varied.Instead of the names of fishes being called over by the person in the middle, the name of some animal, flower, or other object was given to every fresh occupier of the place.There was then good scope for wit in the invention of nicknames, and peals of laughter would often salute some particularly good hit.Thus a very lanky young man was called the Magoary, or the grey stork; a moist grey-eyed man with a profile comically suggestive of a fish was christened Jaraki (a kind of fish), which was considered quite a witty sally; a little Mameluco girl, with light-coloured eyes and brown hair, got the gallant name of Rosa Blanca, or the white rose; a young fellow who had recently singed his eye brows by the explosion of fireworks, was dubbed Pedro queimado (burnt Peter); in short every one got a nickname, and each time the cognomen was introduced into the chorus as the circle marched round.
Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line with the others near the edge of the sand-bank which sloped rather abruptly to the water.During the first week the people were all, more or less, troubled by alligators.Some half-dozen full-grown ones were in attendance off the praia, floating about on the lazily-flowing, muddy water.The dryness of the weather had increased since we had left Shimuni, the currents had slackened, and the heat in the middle part of the day was almost insupportable.But no one could descend to bathe without being advanced upon by one or other of these hungry monsters.There was much offal cast into the river, and this, of course, attracted them to the place.One day I amused myself by taking a basketful of fragments of meat beyond the line of ranchos, and drawing the alligators towards me by feeding them.They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed-- catching the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, and coming nearer and showing increased eagerness after every morsel.The enormous gape of their mouths, with their blood-red lining and long fringes of teeth, and the uncouth shapes of their bodies, made a picture of unsurpassable ugliness.
I once or twice fired a heavy charge of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable part of their bodies, which is a small space situated behind the eyes, but this had no other effect than to make them give a hoarse grunt and shake themselves; they immediately afterwards turned to receive another bone which Ithrew to them.
