To communicate by this novel instrument the Indian steps between the two logs and with a stout club, tipped with leather, knocks alternately upon the sonorous surfaces of the two logs. A code is arranged, based upon the difference of tones and the length and number of the blows struck, so that all kinds of messages can be exchanged. I have distinctly heard messages sent from a distance of from ten to twelve kilometres--that is, on a calm day when there was no wind. The dress of the men is very simple, being composed only of a broad belt of the tough, inner bark known as _llanchama_, from which another piece of the same material reaches down in front and, passing between the legs, is attached to the belt again behind. This garment is called _moggen_ by the Huitotos. The tribes of the Upper Igaraparaná have simplified this costume, and merely suspend from the front of the belt a small sheet of the invaluable _llanchama_. They sometimes wear, in addition to this, several bracelets of _chambira_ fibre on their wrists and ankles. The garb of the women is still more primitive, for they are clothed only in their beauty and four bracelets, two of which they wear on their wrists and the other two on their ankles. I should state, however, that the Indians employed by Ordoñez and Martínez and Serrano wore European clothes. The unfortunate slaves in the service of the Peruvian Amazon Company--except the enormous number of involuntary concubines, &c.--are, however, clothed precisely as described above. As those Huitotos enslaved by the "civilising company" are so constantly employed in the extraction of rubber, the only food they get--omitting the extremely meagre and irregular supplies furnished by the Company, which are not worthy of consideration--is the small quantity of _yucas_ and plantains that their women have time to cultivate and a few products of the forest, such as certain large worms they extract from the bark of different trees, the tender tops of the _chonta_-palm, a few wild fruits, &c. The result is that many die of starvation. Serrano and the other Colombians, however, gave their Indians time to supply their food, and consequently the latter did not suffer from hunger as their unfortunate brothers do at present. The only beverage of the Huitotos is the _cahuana_, a preparation of _yuca_ and the pulp of a forest fruit known as the _aguaje_. It is of a dirty, brownish colour, and has an unpleasant, bitter taste, disagreeable in the extreme.