WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 203 



sour kind of fermented liquor, called piwarri. 

 Tliey are very fond of it, and never fail to get 

 drunk after every brewing. The frequency of 

 the brewing depends upon the superabundance 

 of cassava. 



Both men and women go without clothes. The 

 men have a cotton wrapper, and the women a bead- 

 ornamented square piece of cotton, about the size 

 of your hand, for the fig-leaf. Those far away in 

 the interior, use the bark of a tree for this pur- 

 pose. They are very clean people, and wash in the 

 river, or creek, at least twice every day. They 

 paint themselves with the roucou, sweetly per- 

 fumed with hayawa or accaiari. Their hair is 

 black and lank, and never curled. The women 

 braid it up fancifully, something in the shape of 

 Diana's head-dress in ancient pictures. They 

 have very few diseases. Old age and pulmonary 

 complaints seem to be the chief agents for re- 

 moving them to another world. The pulmonary 

 complaints are generally brought on by a severe 

 cold, which they do not know how to arrest in its 

 progress, by the use of the lancet. I never saw an 

 idiot amongst them, nor could I perceive any that 

 were deformed from their birth. Their women 

 never perish in childbed, owing, no doubt, to their 

 never wearing stays. _ 



They have no public religious ceremony. They 

 acknowledge two superior beings, — a good one, 

 and a bad one. They pray to the latter not to hurt 

 them, and they are of opinion that the former is 

 too good to do them an injury. I suspect, if the 

 truth were known, the individuals of the village 

 never offer up a single prayer or ejaculation. 



