Identifier: brazilamazonscoa00smit (find matches)
Title: Brazil, the Amazons and the coast
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Herbert H. (Herbert Huntington), 1851-1919
Subjects: Folklore -- Brazil Brazil -- Description and travel Brazil -- Economic conditions Amazon River Valley -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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isible over the mud and roily water. If left undis- * The Tupi v^oxA. pira?iha is said by Von Martius (Glossaries, sub voce) to be acontraction of pird-sainha—/. e., toothed fish. The word was subsequently used bythe Indians for a pair of scissors, comparing their cutting power, I suppose, to thatof the fish ; and from this, in turn, the name has been used to designate a fork-tailed swallow—/. e., scissors-bird. THE NORTH SHORE. 285 turbed, the creature is harmless enough, but a careless wadermay step on the flat body, and then the great, barbed sting in-flicts a wound that benumbs the whole body, and makes thesufferer speechless with pain. I have known a man to bebed-ridden for three months after such a wound ; I haveknown others who were lamed for life. Our geological gleanings at Cujubim are so promisingthat we return to the lake after some days, better preparedfor a long stay. We find an Indian fisherman and his family,who have come in the interim, and are occupying the little
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Pirarucu (From Keller.) half-ruined hut. However, they readily give us a corner ofit; sleeping out of doors would be out of the question here,for the mosquitoes are numberless. They never disturb usduring the day ; then we explore the lake and its tributarystreams as far as we can for the bamboo thickets ; the fish-ermen, meanwhile, employing themselves in catching and 286 BRAZIL. curing the great pirarucu,^ which abounds here, as it doesin all the lowland lakes and channels. It feeds among thefloating grass patches, in shallow water; sometimes the fish-ermen watch for it there ; in the open lake one man paddlesthe canoe gently, while another, in the bow, stands ready tocast his harpoon at the fish as they come to the surface.Often he is unsuccessful; if the two fishermen obtain four orfive good fish in a day, they may consider themselves fortu-nate. Successful lake fisheries depend, first, on high floods,which allow the fish to come in from the river over the sub-merged lands, second

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