COOK] BORORO INDIANS OF MATTO GROSSO, BRAZIL 59 



turn for such a present. When he would take his betrothed to him- 

 self he makes a second similar present to her parents and they deliver 

 her to him in his hut. Parents try to betroth their daughters 

 while still young. We saw no large families, the largest number 

 of children any one mother had being three. Extremely early 

 marriage and the fact that the wife is driven to the baehytu when- 

 ever she displeases her lord may be reasons for small families. 

 They hold their wives in utter subjection through fear of the bope 

 and of the baehytu. A few of the leading men have two wifes, an 

 old one, and perhaps also a girl wife. Only men who have killed 

 the spotted tiger, or performed some other feat of valor, may take 

 a second wife. Children are not born in the village. The pros- 

 pective mother hides herself in the bush until the child is born, 

 and then returns to the village or is led back by female friends 

 who go in search of her. It is common for children, espe- 

 cially girls, to nurse until they are six or eight years old, so large 

 indeed that they can stand on the ground and nurse while the 

 mother also stands. Younger children will climb up the mother's 

 leg to reach her breast. They nurse at any time, the mother paying 

 scarcely any attention to the child, who does absolutely as it pleases. 

 The Xeraede and the Ta Narageda in each village eats, fishes, hunts, 

 works, and plays by itself. A man of the Xeraede cannot marry 

 a woman of his own party, but must select one from the Ta 

 Narageda, and vice versa. The Bororo have a tradition that the 

 Xeraede once possessed all things that the Braede, civilized men, 

 now possess, such as knives, axes, blankets, etc., but as these 

 things brought calamity, they were obliged to abandon them. 

 There is evidence that these Indians are made up of what was 

 once two distinct tribes. The Xeraede tradition might indicate 

 that the Bororo may have come in touch with .the civilization of the 

 Andean slope in ancient times. 



The men are usually faithful to their wives — that is, they do not 

 abandon them, especially where they have children, though at rare 

 intervals one will become dissatisfied with his areda, drive her 

 from the hut, and he himself take up his abode elsewhere. Fights 

 between two married men are not uncommon through one intriguing 

 with the other's wife. The conflict begins when the outraged hus- 

 band berates the guilty one in shouts so loud that the whole village 

 can hear, and the latter in turn at the other end of the village returns 

 the compliment with interest. As they warm in their anger they 

 emerge from their huts and finally get together, while all the men, 

 women, and children of the village form a ring around them to 



