“Events that perhaps lacked a historian” - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 319

memory of the slave raids that expelled them from the Río Negro. There are the Ipurinas, in whom
Silva Coutinho glimpsed traces of the Ubaias of Paraguay; the aspects and clothing of the Canamar-
is, as described by Manoel Urbano, vividly recall the stiff, unsewn cushmas —woven robes—of the
Campas who live at the headwaters.
These tribes swarmed both banks of the Purús. The Muras of the mouth of the Parana-Pixuna were
found at Beruri, on the Lake of Hiapuã, at Campina, and in Arimã, where, after 1854, they were
settled by Padre Ciariana. The territory of the Pamaris and the Jubaris, who are known under the gen-
eral name Purús-Purús, extends from the mouth of the Jacaré River to Huitanãa. Gifted artisans of
light canoes and incomparable oarsmen, they live exclusively from fishing turtles and the fruit-eating
pirara catfish, fromwhencecomesthesingularmalady thatmottles theirskinswithwhiteblotches. *5
ThelonghousesofthebraveandvigorousIpurinásstretchfromthePaciatotheIaco,wheretheirhuge
circular housessometimes containmorethan100people,eachcommanded bya tuxauá —aheadman.
From there on up the river are the Canamaris and the Maneteneris, and the hidden forest tribes of the
Pamanás and Jamanadís.
OLD JAMAMADY INDIAN.—PURUS RIVER.
Figure 20.1. Jamanadí Indian.
On the Purús today one no longer sees them as did Silva Coutinho, Chandless, or Manoel Urbano.
The Ipurinás are among the most numerous, but without the characteristics of the past. The Purús-
Purús,whomwesaw,innowayremindedusofthoseintriguingsavagescompletely unshackledfrom
the banks, living in enormous floating longhouses on a permanent voyage, anchoring at random off
sandbars and beaches.