Their houses are peculiar. Very long, slender poles are stuck in the ground opposite each other, and about thirty feet apart; their ends are brought together at the top, forming a Gothic arch about twenty feet high. Similar poles, of different lengths, are planted in front of the openings of the arch, and their ends are brought down and lashed to the top and sides of the openings. They are secured by cross-poles, inside and out, and the whole is thickly thatched to the ground, leaving two or three apertures for entrance. The house looks, on the outside, like a gigantic bee-hive. On the inside, small cabins of cane are built at intervals around the walls, each one of which is the sleeping-room of a family. Four or five families generally occupy one house, and the middle space is used in common. This is never cleaned, nor even levelled, and is littered with all manner of abominations. There is a puddle of water before each door; for, from the construction of the house, the rain, both from the heavens and the roof, pours directly into it.
After evening service, the Indians went off to their houses to commence the festival. They kept the drums going all night, and until 10 o'clock next morning, when they came in a body to conduct us to mass. Most of them were the worse for their night's debauch, and sat upon the ground in a listless and stupid manner; occasionally talking and laughing with each other, and little edified, I fear, by the sacred ceremony.
I was annoyed at the poverty of the church, and determined, if I ever went back, that I would appeal to the Roman Catholics of the United States for donations. The priestly vestments were in rags. The lavatory was a gourd, a little earthern pitcher, and a jack towel of cotton; and it grieved me to see the host taken from a shaving box, and the sanctified wine poured from a vinegar cruet.
After mass, and a procession, the Indians went back with us to the convento, and entertained us with music whilst we breakfasted. It was well that the drums were small, or we should have been fairly deafened. There were six of them, and they were beaten without intermission. One fellow dropt to sleep, but we gained nothing by this, for his neighbor beat his drum for him. Nearly the whole male population were crowded into the convento. The breakfast was furnished by the Indians; each family contributing a dish. The old women were proud of their dishes, and seemed gratified when we partook of, and commended them. They continued their frolic all day and night.
On Monday we visited the houses of the Indians to see what curiosities we could get. We found the men stretched in their hammocks, sleeping off the effects of the masato; and the patient, much-enduring women at work twisting chambira for hammocks, or preparing yuccas or plantains to make drink for their lords. We could get nothing except a hammock or two, and some twisted chambira to make me a lead line. The Indians had hidden their hammocks; and we had to go poking about with our sticks, and searching in corners for them. The reason of this was that most of them owe the padre; and this paying of debts seems as distasteful to the savage man as to the civilized.
The only article of manufacture is a coarse hammock, made of the fibres of the budding top of a species of palm, called chambira in Peru, and tucum in Brazil. The tree is very hard, and is defended with long sharp thorns, so that it is a labor of a day to cut a "Cogollo," or top; split the leaves into strips of convenient breadth; and strip off the fibres, which are the outer covering of the leaves, and which is done very dexterously with the finger and thumb. A "top" of ordinary size yields about half a pound of fibres; and when it is reflected that these fibres have to be twisted, a portion of them dyed, and then woven into hammocks of three or four pounds weight, it will be seen that the Indian is very poorly paid for his labor when he receives for a hammock twelve and a half cents in silver, or twenty-five cents in efectos.
The women twist the thread with great dexterity. They sit on the ground, and, taking two threads, which consist of a number of minute fibres, between the finger and thumb of the left hand, they lay them, separated a little, on the right thigh. A roll of them down the thigh, under the right hand, twists each thread; when, with a scarcely perceptible motion of the hand, she brings the two together, and a roll up the thigh makes the cord. A woman will twist fifty fathoms about the size of a common twine in a day.
The Indians brought me some few birds; but they were too drunken and lazy to go out into the forest to hunt rare birds, and only brought me those that they could shoot about their houses.
The climate of San José is very agreeable. It seems drier and more salubrious than that of Pebas; and there are fewer musquitoes. The atmosphere was very clear for the two nights I spent there; and I thought I could see the smaller stars with more distinctness than I had seen them for a long time.
The history of the settlement of this place is remarkable, as showing the attachment of the Indians to their pastor and their church.