Dense bushes of a harsh, cutting grass, called Tiririca, form almost the only fresh vegetation in the dry season.Perhaps the dense shade, the long period during which the land remains under water, and the excessively rapid desiccation when the waters retire, all contribute to the barrenness of these Ygapos.The higher and drier land is everywhere sandy, and tall coarse grasses line the borders of the broad alleys which have been cut through the second-growth woods.These places swarm with carapatos, ugly ticks belonging to the genus Ixodes, which mount to the tips of blades of grass, and attach themselves to the clothes of passers-by.They are a great annoyance.It occupied me a full hour daily to pick them off my flesh after my diurnal ramble.There are two species; both are much flattened in shape, have four pairs of legs, a thick short proboscis and a horny integument.Their habit is to attach themselves to the skin by plunging their proboscides into it, and then suck the blood until their flat bodies are distended into a globular form.The whole proceeding, however, is very slow, and it takes them several days to pump their fill.No pain or itching is felt, but serious sores are caused if care is not taken in removing them, as the proboscis is liable to break off and remain in the wound.Alittle tobacco juice is generally applied to make them loosen their hold.They do not cling firmly to the skin by their legs, although each of these has a pair of sharp and fine claws connected with the tips of the member by means of a flexible pedicle.When they mount to the summits of slender blades of grass, or the tips of leaves, they hold on by their forelegs only, the other three pairs being stretched out so as to fasten onto any animal which comes their way.The smaller of the two species is of a yellowish colour; it is the most abundant, and sometimes falls upon one by scores.When distended, it is about the size of a No.8 shot; the larger kind, which fortunately comes only singly to the work, swells to the size of a pea.
In some parts of the interior, the soil is composed of very coarse sand and small fragments of quartz; in these places no trees grow.I visited, in company with the priest, Padre Torquato, one of these treeless spaces or campos, as they are called, situated five miles from the village.The road thither led through a varied and beautiful forest, containing many gigantic trees.I missed the Assai, Mirti, Paxiuba, and other palms which are all found only on rich moist soils, but the noble Bacaba was not uncommon, and there was a great diversity of dwarf species of Maraja palms (Bactris), one of which, called the Peuririma, was very elegant, growing to a height of twelve or fifteen feet, with a stem no thicker than a man's finger.On arriving at the campo, all this beautiful forest abruptly ceased, and we saw before us an oval tract of land three or four miles in circumference, destitute even of the smallest bush.The only vegetation was a crop of coarse hairy grass growing in patches.
The forest formed a hedge all round the isolated field, and its borders were composed in great part of trees which do not grow in the dense virgin forest, such as a great variety of bushy Melastomas, low Byrsomina trees, myrtles, and Lacre-trees, whose berries exude globules of wax resembling gamboge.On the margins of the campo wild pineapples also grew in great quantity.The fruit was of the same shape as our cultivated kind, but much smaller, the size being that of a moderately large apple.We gathered several quite ripe ones; they were pleasant to the taste, of the true pineapple flavour, but had an abundance of fully developed seeds, and only a small quantity of eatable pulp.
There was no path beyond this campo; in fact, all beyond is terra incognita to the inhabitants of Villa Nova.
The only interesting Mammalian animal which I saw at Villa Nova was a monkey of a species new to me; it was not, however, a native of the district, having been brought by a trader from the river Madeira, a few miles above Borba.It was a howler, probably the Mycetes stramineus of Geoffroy St.Hilaire.The howlers are the only kinds of monkey which the natives have not succeeded in taming.They are often caught, but they do not survive captivity many weeks.The one of which I am speaking was not quite full grown.It measured sixteen inches in length, exclusive of the tail-- the whole body was covered with rather long and shining dingy-white hair, the whiskers and beard only being of a tawny hue.It was kept in a house, together with a Coaita and a Caiarara monkey (Cebus albifrons).Both these lively members of the monkey order seemed rather to court attention, but the Mycetes slunk away when anyone approached it.When it first arrived, it occasionally made a gruff subdued howling noise early in the morning.The deep volume of sound in the voice of the howling monkeys, as is well known, is produced by a drum-shaped expansion of the larynx.It was curious to watch the animal while venting its hollow cavernous roar, and observe how small was the muscular exertion employed.When howlers are seen in the forest, there are generally three or four of them mounted on the topmost branches of a tree.It does not appear that their harrowing roar is emitted from sudden alarm; at least, it was not so in captive individuals.It is probable, however, that the noise serves to intimidate their enemies.I did not meet with the Mycetes stramineus in any other part of the Amazons region; in the neighbourhood of Para a reddish-coloured species prevails (M.
Belzebuth); in the narrow channels near Breves I shot a large, entirely black kind; another yellow-handed species, according to the report of the natives, inhabits the island of Macajo, which is probably the M.flavimanus of Kuhl; some distance up the Tapajos the only howler found is a brownish-black species; and on the Upper Amazons, the sole species seen was the Mycetes ursinus, whose fur is of a shining yellowish-red colour.
