THE BORORO INDIANS OF MATTO GROSSO, BRAZIL 

 By W. A. COOK 



In November, 1900, while in Goyaz, Brazil, the writer received a 

 communication from the Smithsonian Institution, through Doctor 

 Orville A. Derby, of Sao Paulo, requesting photographs and descrip- 

 tions of the aboriginal tribes of Matto Grosso and a collection of 

 objects made and used by them. 1 I here give some account of the 

 journey to Matto Grosso and of the manners and customs of the 

 Bororo tribe. 



Senhor Antonio Candido de Carvalho, a Brazilian explorer of large 

 experience and influence and thoroughly acquainted with the region 

 to be traversed, had arrived at Goyaz with his light traveling cara- 

 van, and the evening before the communication from Mr. W. H. 

 Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution was received, had invited me 

 to accompany him on a visit to the villages of the Bororo Indians 

 scattered over that extensive region of Matto Grosso between the 

 capital of Goyaz and Cuyaba, the capital of the State of Matto 

 Grosso. I did not hesitate to accept the invitation, for with Senhor 

 Antonio as a companion and guide, whose influence over many of the 

 Bororo tribe was great, I would be at much advantage in doing the 

 work desired. 



As Senhor Antonio Candido had his equipment, I needed only to 

 buy a mule to carry my baggage and a horse to ride upon, a tent, 

 raincoat, riding boots, and some bright colored cloth, knives, beads, 

 fishhooks, mirrors, handkerchiefs, etc., to trade with the Indians. 



We left the city of Goyaz, nearly 700 miles from the Atlantic 

 coast, on November 17, and, following the divide between the great 

 river systems to the north and south, traversed between nine hundred 

 and a thousand miles before reaching the city of Cuyaba, in Matto 

 Grosso. 



We rode nearly 600 miles before we began to meet with the Bororo 

 Indians. The last 60 or 70 miles was through an exceedingly wild 

 and almost unknown region of forest and dense bush that made trav- 

 eling almost like pushing through a network of barbed- wire sieves, 

 where we were constantly raked and torn, and were drenched by the 

 daily thunderstorms. 



1 The photographs, implements, and other objects gathered by Mr. Cook among 

 the Bororo Indians are in the U. S. National Museum. — Editor. 

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