[Illustration: 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.