308 RKCOLI/ECTIONS OF BKA/IL. 



marry a sister or a niece is looked upon as infamous ; the Tupis, and 

 their ancestors the Zupenambus did not openly permit it, and the 

 Yamoes, who inhabit the hanks of the Amazon, do not permit mar- 

 riages amongst members of the same community, whom they consider 

 as relative of blood, although no real affinity can be proved. 



As among all savage tribes, the woman is entirely at the disposition 

 of the man who marries her. He offers her person to strangers, 

 and sometimes he lends her to another, and may, if it pleases, repudiate 

 her. Adultery is held to be only criminal on the part of the woman, 

 and is frequently punished by death, Infanticide is common, the 

 Guaccarurus never rear a child until they have attained their thirtieth 

 year. Some of the tribes are said to even bury alive their female 

 children. As soon as the woman has been delivered, the husband, 

 in some of the tribes, takes to his hammock, and receives the visits of 

 his friends, as if he were really sick ; the woman, on the other hand, 

 when the moment of the birth approaches, goes into the wood and 

 carefully conceals herself from the light of the moon. The navel 

 strings are torn or bitten asunder, and immediately after she goes into 

 the stream and attends to her household concerns as if nothing had 

 happened. Infants are sometimes kept at the breast till they are 

 five years old. The father rarely manifests any thing that ap- 

 proaches to paternal affection : until the age of puberty the child is 

 entirely at his disposition ; but on attaining the age of fourteen or 

 fifteen he is declared to have reached the age of manhood, receives 

 a new name, and becomes master of his own actions. The ceremonies 

 on these occasions are extremely singular ; they are symbolical of 

 courage and intrepidity, and of their insensibility to pain and horror 

 of their enemies. Among the Passes the chief announces to the tribe 

 that his son is capable of bearing arms, by making a deep incision in 

 his breast with a parrot's bill. The daughters remain with their 

 parents until they are married. Education is unknown among them, 

 the father allowing the children to do just as they please. Some- 

 times widows disinter the bones of their husbands, clean and pre- 

 serve them. Orphans are sometimes allowed to perish with hunger. 

 In several tribes they kill the old and infirm, to rid them of an 

 existence become a burden to them. Formerly, among the Tupis, 

 when the Paie gave over a patient, he advised the friends to put an 

 end to his sufferings, and the body was eaten. 



The Lex Taliones is firmly established among all the aboriginal 

 tribes of Brazil. Prisoners of war are generally put to death, after 

 suffering the most refined torture, in which the women are the prin- 

 cipal actors. 



When blood has by accident or premeditately been spilt by a 

 member of the same tribe, the chief may insist upon the family of the 

 deceased receiving a compensation. 



Abandoned by tradition and all historical records, the inquirer has 

 nothing left him but to observe the external form of these people, 

 their customs, and their language, in order from those particulars to 

 determine their rank amo-ng other races of mankind, and their general 

 degree of civilization. 



The colour of the Brazilian Indians varies from a dark red, brown, 



