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xv FROM MANAOS TO TARAPOTO
sleep, are made of the Tarapoto palm (Iriartea
ventricosa] split and flattened out into slabs. These
beds are raised about 3 feet from the ground. A
mat of one or more layers of Tururi (bark cloth)
is laid on the barbacoa, and the whole is enclosed
in a quadrilateral bag of Tocuyo (a coarse native
cotton cloth), supported on a framework of reeds, to
serve as a mosquito curtain. It effectually keeps out
insects but is very hot. Benches, both inside and
outside the houses, are made in the same way, but the
latter sometimes of an old canoe, the bottom form-
ing the seat and one side the back, like a settle.
The industry of Yurimaguas, besides the salting
of fish, which is clone during summer, is chiefly the
fabrication of painted ollas and cuyas (pots and
calabashes), and numerous old calabash trees scat-
tered about the pueblo form one of its most
picturesque features.
The Padre's house is much better than the rest
-built as in Brazil on a framework of rods filled in
with clay, and painted white, outside and in, with
gypsum. It contains several tables, the tops of
which are single slabs, one 4 feet across. The
rooms are ceiled with Cana brava, closely laid
across the beams and covered above with a thin
layer of clay.
A peculiar utensil seen hen- and elsewhere in
Maynas is a large
flat shallow dish, of the form of
the tin vessels used by gold-washers ;
the sapopema of some light- wooded tree,
have seen one above 5 feet in diameter.
used chiefly for crushing
it is made ol
ami I
maize with a stone tor the
fabrication of chicha (native beer), but is
for grinding coffee, etc.
VOL. II