Chap. II. TATTOOING. 127 



dren. Before they were discovered the hungry savages 

 had uprooted all the macasheira, sweet potatoes, and 

 suo-ar cane, which the industrious Mundurucus had 

 planted for the season, on the east side of the river. 

 As soon as they were seen they made off, but the 

 Tushaua quickly got together all the young men of 

 the settlement, about thirty in number, who armed 

 themselves with guns, bows and arrows, and javelins, 

 and started in pursuit. They tracked them, as be- 

 fore related, for two days through the forest, but lost 

 their traces on the further bank of the Cuparitinga, 

 a branch stream flowing from the north-east. The 

 pursuers thought, at one time, they were close upon 

 them, having found the inextinguished fire of their last 

 encampment. The footmarks of the chief could be 

 distinguished from the rest by their great size and 

 the length of the stride. A small necklace made of 

 scarlet beans was the only trophy of the expedition, 

 and this the Tushaua gave to me. 



I saw very little of the other male Indians, as they 

 were asleep in their huts all the afternoon. There 

 were two other tattooed men lying under an open shed, 

 besides the old man already mentioned. One of them 

 presented a strange appearance, having a semicircular 

 black patch in the middle of his face, covering the 

 bottom of the nose and mouth, crossed lines on his 

 back and breast, and stripes down his arms and legs. It 

 is singular that the graceful curved patterns used by the 

 South Sea Islanders, are quite unknown among the Bra- 

 zilian red men ; they being all tattooed either in simple 

 lines or patches. The nearest approach to elegance of 



