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n6 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP
Several small streams of black water were
passed to-day. There was no perceptible current
in them, and when the river is fuller it evidently
enters some way up them. . . . The river winds
much, and reminds me of the Upper Pacimoni. This
morning we passed one reach due S. where the
(i.e.
course of the river is
N.), and towards evening we
made much easting.
May 9. When our Indians have been an hour
or two on their way in the morning they proceed
to take their chicha. From the mass of crushed and
fermented yucas which they keep in a monstrous
jar in the prow, they take out handfuls and mix
with water to a drinkable consistency. The drink-
ing-vessels
used are wide shallow basins varnished
and painted, whose use is general amongst the
Indians of Maynas. Each Indian will drink one
of these full twice or thrice equivalent to about
half a gallon. In the process they occupy at least
half an hour, and are as merry and noisy (but not
so quarrelsome) as a lot of navvies over their beer.
At the same time they make their toilet, which
consists in carefully combing out their hair with
cane combs of their own manufacture, then tucking
up the back hair with a liana passed round the
head, while the narrow strip of long hair at the
sides is allowed to hang down over the ears, and
that on the forehead has been cut short, as already
mentioned. After this comes the painting. Each
man carries in his bag a slender bamboo tube, a
little larger than one's finger, filled with anatto or
chica ; from
this he extracts a portion with a small