Chap. II. MUNDURUCU INDIANS. 125 



wooden steps. There were four other houses in the 

 neighbourhood, all filled with people. A fine old fel- 

 low, with face, shoulders, and breast tattooed all over 

 in a cross-bar pattern, was the first strange object that 

 caught my eye. Most of the men lay lounging or 

 sleeping in their hammocks. The women were em- 

 ployed in an adjoining shed making farinha, many of 

 them being quite naked, and rushing off to the huts to 

 slip on their petticoats when they caught sight of us. 

 Our entrance aroused the Tushaua from a nap ; after 

 rubbing his eyes he came forward and bade us welcome 

 with the most formal politeness, and in very good Por- 

 tuguese. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-made 

 man, apparently about thirty years of age, with hand- 

 some regular features, not tattooed, and a quiet good- 

 humoured expression of countenance. He had been 

 several times to Santarem and once to Para, learning 

 the Portuguese language during these journeys. He 

 was dressed in shirt and trousers made of blue-checked 

 cotton cloth and there was not the slightest trace of the 

 savage in his appearance or demeanour. I was told 

 that he had come into the chieftainship by inheritance, 

 and that the Cupari horde of Mundurucus, over which his 

 fathers had ruled before him, was formerly much more 

 numerous, furnishing 300 bows in time of war. They 

 could now scarcely muster forty ; but the horde has no 

 longer a close political connection with the main body 

 of the tribe, which inhabits the banks of the Tapajos, 

 six days' journey from the Cupari settlement. 



I spent the remainder of the day here, sending Aracu 

 and the men to fish, whilst I amused myself with the 



