310 UKCOLLKCTIONS OF BRAZIL. 



the pleasure of the palate, fond of animal food, he is in general ab- 

 stemious, obeying only the calls of nature, without regard to time ; 

 but, on the other hand, he is addicted to ardent liquors, and drinks to 

 excess. The quantity of strong rum or brandy that we have seen an 

 Indian drink is surprising. Naturally taciturn, when not engaged in 

 the pursuits of the chace, he sleeps, or will sit for hours with his eyes 

 fixed on the ground. His chief attention is directed to the moon, to 

 whose influence he attributes all the phenomena of nature, by the 

 varying phases of which he calculates time, and from which he de- 

 duces good or evil : the former passes without notice, it is the latter 

 that can only make any impression upon his almost insensible nature. 

 All his faculties appear concentrated on one object, self preservation ; 

 almost incapable of distinguishing the past from the future, he has no 

 foresight for the morrow. A stranger to gratitude, to ambition, to 

 ail the nobler passions of the mind ; obtuse, reserved, sunk in indiffer- 

 ence to every thing but war and the chase ; cold and indolent in his 

 domestic relations, he follows mere animal instinct, and his love for 

 his wife shews itself only by his jealousy, which with revenge are the 

 only passions that can arouse his stunted soul from its natural state of 

 morbid indifference. Accustomed to continual wandering in the 

 forests, having his perceptions sharpened by keen necessity, and 

 living in every respect according to nature, his external senses have 

 a degree of acuteness, which at first sight appears incredible. Of all 

 the arms of savage tribes on the face of the globe, the colossal bow of 

 the Brazilian is the most formidable. They are from seven to eight 

 feet long, made of a red wood (pao de arco) ; their arrows are of three 

 kinds, either for the chase or war, and are made of a reed (taquarassii). 

 The skill with which they use this formidable weapon is astonishing, 

 nothing escapes them, not even the most diminutive object. The 

 nations who live on the banks of the Amazon and Kis-Negro, in ad- 

 dition to the bow, use clubs, and the jarbacanna (shooting trunk), 

 through whicb they propel a small poisoned arrow, to a distance of 

 forty of fifty yards. The poison in which the arrow is dipped is so 

 subtle that death instantaneously ensues, though, notwithstanding its 

 deadly nature, game killed by it may be eaten without the slightest 

 danger. The preparation of this poison is a secret known only to the 

 Indians of that part of Brazil. In the eastern and southern parts of 

 the empire poisoned arms are unknown. The Indians who have 

 formed the subject of this paper are chiefly those who live on the 

 banks of the Amazon and its tributaries. The only Topuyos tribes 

 in the southern parts are the Coroodos, Puris, and Botocuclos, and 

 these, as civilization advances westward, are gradually retreating far- 

 ther back into the interior. 



The rude barbarism of the Brazilian Indians, when compared with 

 the advanced state of civilization in which the Spaniards found the 

 Peruvians, has given rise to many ingenious theories. It has been 

 remarked that the savage nations of an insular territory are more 

 rapidly civilized than those of a continent, because, circumscribed by 

 territory, they are sooner obliged to abandon the chase and turn their 

 attention to agriculture. It was to physical causes, different in their 

 nature but similar in their operation, that we may attribute the high 



