File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972364290).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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THE ROOSEVELT-RON DON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 59 stones with which to fill up the roadway when the broad wheels mired deep in the loose sand, to repairuig the engines on the rare occasions when such a procedur'^ was necessarj'. We reached the Rio Sacre, beyond which point the trucks could not proceed, on the evening of the 28th. The river is here broken by a fall one hundred and fifty feet high. As elsewhere in South America, we were constantly reminded of the appalling lack of animal life. During the entire three days required to reach the Rio Sacre we saw only a few rheas, a seriema ^ or two, and a num- ber of deer. On the morning of the 29th, we crossed the Sacre on a pon- toon ferry, and using a number of animals which had been held in readiness there, rode the two leagues to Utiarity, a village of the Parecis Indians; the Rio Papagaio, a clear, swift stream flows past the settlement, and half a mile away dashes over the brink of a precipice two hundred and fifty feet high. The Parecis are a small tribe of semi-civilized Indians who live in substantial huts and cul- tivate large fields of mandioca, corn and sweet potatoes. Some of them wore clothes while many wore only a breech-clotli of their own weaving. They also make hammocks and vari- ous articles for ornamental pur- poses. The youths of the tribe engaged in a curious game of head-ball, using for the pm'pose a hollow rubber sphere a foot in diameter, which they them- selves manufacture. They chose sides and batted the ball back and forth across a line, with their heads. The hands were not used, and they dis- played remarkable dexterity and tireless energy at this form of amusement. One evening just before sundown, practi- cally all of the men joined in a sacred dance. For this occasion they were clothed in gaudy red head-bands from which protruded the brilliant feathers of the gi-eat blue and j-ellow macaw; bead neck-chains and belts, and anklets made of bunches of curious dry seeds which kept up a continuous rattling sound as the dancers stamped in rhythm with the low, wailing music of reed
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1 Seriema: a large, long-legged crested bird, probably related to the cranes. Type of Indian assistants or camaradas, who were employed l)y the expedition to take charge of the horses, mules and oxen and the impedimenta

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