Part 9 (2/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Parrot.]

There are many kinds of them. Some are red, some are green, some are blue, and some are all these colors.

Monkeys chatter and parrots screech. What a noise they must sometimes make!

But besides the parrots and the monkeys, there are humming birds and b.u.t.terflies. You know that the humming bird is a very small bird, but humming birds are found in these forests no larger than a bee. The b.u.t.terflies are the most beautiful in the world.

The people who live in these forests are called Indians. They do not often let white men come among them. Their skin is copper color, like the Indians of our country. Their hair is black and straight. They are not as tall as our Indians, but their bodies are finely formed.

They have large, full chests. Their hands and feet are small and nicely shaped.

They keep themselves very clean. The men and women, the boys and girls, are all fond of bathing. The first thing they do in the morning is to take a bath in the nearest river.

Strange to say, some of them paint their faces and bodies. They take the juice of a tree which will stain a blue black. They pour this juice on their heads, and let it run in streams down their backs. They also put red and yellow in large round spots on their cheeks and foreheads.

The men braid their hair, and wear it long, down their backs. They part their hair and wear combs. But the women do not part their hair and do not wear combs. They pull the hair out of their eyebrows. They make holes in their ears. In these holes they wear, instead of rings, a little piece of gra.s.s with feathers fastened to it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Painted Amazon Indian.]

Their houses are made of logs of wood set in the ground as posts. They put other logs on top of these for a roof. Then they cover these logs with palm leaves. There are no windows, and they use mats for doors.

They sleep in hammocks. These they make of string. They make the string by twisting the leaves of a tree.

They have plenty of pans and pots, both large and small. These pans and pots they make of clay.

First, they soften the clay and knead it. Then they shape it into pots and pans. It is then dried in the sun. When the pots and pans are dry they are put in a hot fire. This makes them hard and strong.

The chief food of these Indians is a kind of flour made from the root of a plant. They also eat fish. A great many fish are found in the rivers. These they catch and eat. They also dry fish and then smoke them over a fire. The smoked fish keep good a long time.

These Indians sail on the rivers in canoes. But their canoes are heavy. They are not light, as the canoes of our Indians are. They are not made of birch bark.

These Indians make an entire canoe out of a single tree. The canoe is made thick so as not to be broken by knocking against snags and rocks.

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