On the morning of the 29th we crossed the Sacre on a pontoon boat and, using a number of mules that had been previously sent there, rode the two leagues to the Parecís Indian village of Utiarity. From afar we could hear the deafening roar of water, and the Indians eagerly guided us to a spot just below the settlement, where the Papagayo rushes over the edge of a precipice and falls into the gorge below in one sheer drop of two hundred and eighty feet. The river is fully five hundred feet wide, and the quantity of clear, cold water it flows is enormous. The spectacle of the descending wall of snowy water streaked with various shades of green and blue, the idly floating mist-clouds, and the thunderous roar is awe-inspiring. When it is remembered that these falls are higher than Niagara, one can easily picture the wonderful sight that meets the eye of the traveller in this virgin country.
The Parecís are a small tribe of semicivilized Indians who live in substantial huts and cultivate fields of mandioca, corn, and sweet potatoes. Formerly they were far more numerous, but an incessant warfare with the neighboring tribes and contact with the outside world have thinned their ranks until they are well on the road to extinction. Some of them wore clothes, while many wore only a breech-cloth of their own weaving. They also make hammocks and various articles for useful or ornamental purposes.
In stature the Parecís is rather short, but he is well built and sturdy. His color is a light shade of brown. The youths of the tribe engaged in a curious game of head-ball, using for the purpose a hollow rubber sphere a foot in diameter, manufactured by themselves. They chose sides and batted the ball back and forth across a line with their heads. At no time were the hands or feet used to strike or kick the ball. They displayed remarkable dexterity and tireless energy at this form of amusement; if the ball came bounding along the ground they made headlong dives for it like a baseball-player sliding to home plate.
One evening just before sundown practically all of the men joined in a sacred dance. On this occasion they were clothed in gaudy red head-bands, bead neck-chains and belts, also anklets made of bunches of curious dry seeds that kept up a continuous rattling sound as the dancers stamped in rhythm with the low, sighing music of reed flutes. They stopped at short intervals to drink chicha, and during certain parts of the dance they sang the names of their dead warriors and mighty hunters, calling upon them for guidance and assistance. We had previously seen a blue-and-yellow macaw about the village; it had the run of the place and seemed to be a great favorite with everybody. While the dance was in progress the bird sat disconsolately on top of one of the huts. Then we discovered that the Indians had pulled out its tail-feathers and used them to decorate their head-dresses.