BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 507 



horde of about fifty Indians, in all the nakedness and wild- 

 ness of their savage nature. These poor creatures are per- 

 mitted occasionally by their masters to come down from the 

 woods, between the Rio Mearim and the Rio das Alpercatas, 

 in order to purchase for themselves, from the inhabitants of 

 the town, different articles of clothing, hatchets, knives, and 

 all kinds of little utensils ; in return for which, they give large 

 cakes of wax, beautiful coloured feathers, and elegantly carved 

 bows and arrows. Similar processions not unfrequently take 

 place, and they are one of the plans adopted by the settlers 

 for the purpose of keeping in good humour these original 

 lords of the soil. On a late occasion, they were so fortunate 

 as to establish a friendly intercourse between the free Indians 

 of the Province Maranhao and the settlers ; prudence requir- 

 ing that the ancient hostile hordes should be pacificated by 

 all practicable measures. Thus, when the Indians whom we 

 saw, came to Cachias, they received liberal presents of flour, 

 brandy, tobacco, and coloured cottons. These natives belong 

 to two allied tribes, the Aponegi-crans and the Macamo-crans, 

 the latter also called Carumes. Their forms were so strong 

 and symmetrical, their step and deportment so very free and 

 active, that we could not but observe the striking difference 

 which exists between them and all the various tribes we had 

 hitherto seen. They were mostly of an European stature, 

 and the countenances of the younger individuals had an open 

 and not unpleasing expression ; still, the small eyes, short 

 and widely-spread nose, the hollow and low forehead, beto- 

 kened the type of the South American aborigines. Only the 

 °ld ones were disfigured by holes in their lower lips and the 

 cleft lobes of their ears. The former orifice was produced 

 and enlarged by inserting shining yellow cylindrical pieces of 

 alabaster or resin, from l£ inches to 3 inches long, and which 

 could be easily removed at pleasure ; while in the slits of the 

 ears, of which the lobes were unnaturally extended to a length 

 of between 2 and 3 inches, they wore pieces of wood, reaching 

 nearly to the shoulder. The prevailing hue of those indi- 



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