tupe

Updated: June 25, 2025

It was served on plates of English manufacture on a tupe, or large plaited rush mat, such as is made by the natives pretty generally on the Amazons. Three or four other Indians, men and women of middle age, now made their appearance, and joined in the meal. We all sat round on the floor: the women, according to custom, not eating until after the men had done.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons