124 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



being performed on them by an old woman. The women 

 seem to consider pendent breasts as ornamental, the young 

 girls, as soon as they begin to form, pressing them close to 

 the bod}' and downwards withal with bandages. They also 

 sometimes file the two front teeth away, and raise cicatrices 

 on the skin as well as the men. 



The common ceremony of closing a bargain, of giving a 

 receipt or an assurance, is by breaking a leaf, which is 

 considered as then irrevocable ; and this ceremony we found 

 necessary to perform with the seller of every fowl. 



Excepting one knife, which was stolen by a boy, we met 

 with no instances of theft; and on one of the great men 

 being informed of the loss in this case, the whole of the per- 

 sons present were called under the great tree, and asked 

 individually if they had taken it; when a boy confessed 

 and produced it. 



There being now a general peace in the country all the 

 men go entirely unarmed, except when they go down the river 

 in canoes, when there is usually a musquet in each canoe. 



Among the number of their superstitions is that of refrain- 

 ing from different kinds of food at certain times and occa- 

 sions ; thus the men will not eat the flesh of a fowl until a 

 woman has tasted of it, to take off the fetiche, as ihey 

 express it. Pumpkins and eggs are objects of similar 

 superstitions ; and when we killed the cow, the king sent 



