[183] Query: Is the name Yagua (blood) derived from the practice of coloring the body red?
[184] Compare the ancient burial custom on the Andes: "On the decease of the Inca his palaces are abandoned: all his treasures, except those that were employed in his obsequies, his furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and his mansions, save one, were closed up forever."—Prescott.
[185] The women circumcise themselves, and a man will not marry a woman who is not circumcised. They perform the singular rite upon arriving at the age of puberty, and have a great feast at the time. Other tribes flog and imprison their daughters when they reach womanhood.
[186] The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a fair quality. Usually the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold "Humboldt current," which passes along the west coast of Ecuador, renders them as edible as those of temperate zones.
[187] Called chancaca in Peru. In flavor it is very nearly equal to maple-sugar.
[188] First published in the American Journal of Science for September, 1868, to which the reader is referred for other physical observations. The barometric anomaly, noticed particularly on the Lower Amazon, was also observed by Herndon, Castelnau, Chandlers, Spruce, and Wallace.
[189] Qu'ichua on Marañon, tiuiút.
[190] This Table is taken from the Relatoria da Companhia de Navegaçao e Commercio do Amazonas, and includes only the commerce by the Brazilian steamers and the staple products. The vast amount carried by sailing craft and by Peruvian steamers on the Marañon is unknown to us. The number of passengers transported by the steamers in 1867 was 13,886; receipts from passage, $75,744; from freight, $210,654. In the reduction, the milrey has been taken at 50 cts. U.S. currency, which was the rate very nearly in 1867. The alquiere (alq.)—.988 of a bushel; arr. = arroba of 32 lbs.