676 THE ACAWOIOS. 



Though less cruel, and frequently sparing the lives of their 

 captives, they had the strange custom of eating a portion of their 

 dead relatives, as the last mark of affection. Many of the 

 Brazilian tribes were reclaimed from their more barbarous 

 practices by the Portuguese missionaries, who from their nume- 

 rous dialects formed the language now generally in use the 

 Tupi, Guarani, or lingua Geral The remoter tribes, however, 

 seeing the way the milder races have been oppressed by un- 

 scrupulous traders, and hunted down by government officials 

 to be taken as soldiers, resolutely defend their territories from 

 all strangers, and retain the ferocity and cannibalism of their 

 forefathers. 



THE ACAWOIOS. 



It is pleasing to read of a tribe described by M'Clintock as 

 superior in domestic virtues to most of their countrymen. The 

 Acawoios, or Kaphons, though warlike, differ from other tribes 

 in many points. Polygamy is not permitted before a suitable 

 age. The women are virtuous, and attentive both in sickness 

 and old age. After a birth, the mother is relieved even from 

 the labour of preparing food for her husband, that she may 

 attend to her child. They are cleanly, hospitable, and gener- 

 ous, and passionately fond of their children. They seldom talk 

 above a whisper among themselves, and however intoxicated 

 which they sometimes become never quarrel ; nay, more, an 

 angry look is never discernible. They use tobacco ; not chew- 

 ing it, however, but simply keeping it between the lips, for 

 the purpose of appeasing hunger and preserving their teeth. 

 They live towards the head-Avaters of the Essequibo. On the 

 whole, a more orderly and peaceably-disposed people can 

 scarcely be found anywhere. 



The customs of the fierce tribes, though differing in some re- 



