COOK] BORORO INDIANS 01? MATTO GROSSO, BRAZIL 6l 



long tongue-like leaf furnishes a silk or band of strands called 

 bokigo, which he rolls into a single strand as he sits cross-legged on 

 the ground, and by twisting this strand with others he obtains cord- 

 ing with which to make his fishing nets, harpoon lines, etc. From 

 the ground he digs two or three varieties of the potato family, which 

 he boils. Corn is eaten as roasting ears or cut from the ears and 

 boiled. They use no salt. The large ant bear is considered the 

 most valuable of all creatures. Nearly every part of its body is 

 utilized. When discovered it is driven to the village for slaughter 

 in order to secure its blood. After this comes the tapir, which is 

 also greatly esteemed. When food is plenty they eat nearly all the 

 time when awake, and even rise several times in the night to take a 

 little food. While we were in the baehytu at the Kogy ao Paro 

 village we saw 33 men devour upwards of 25 gallons of boiled 

 shelled corn within an hour and a half, and they had been nibbling 

 roast ears all the morning. The two men who had accompanied us 

 from the Ja-Dare-Mano Paro were induced to eat from every pot as 

 they were brought in one at a time. They seem never to get full, 

 and will eat as long as there is anything to be had. While at work 

 making bows and arrows and ornaments, they are nibbling food, if 

 they can obtain it. They eat the corn mush squatting and standing 

 around the pot, using large oyster- like shells or broad leaves as 

 spoons. 



Their language seems quite free from clicks and from deep gut- 

 turals. The names given to animals are often in imitation of the 

 sound produced by the animal. Ki, for instance, means tapir, and 

 is a close imitation of the note of this animal ; pobu means river or 

 water ; pobu camahina is great river ; meri rutu, sunset ; adugo, 

 spotted tiger or ounce ; and aigo, brown ounce. Baekimo is the 

 negative; Boe by baekimo means " Indian die not" — "I will not 

 die." 



They are wonderful whistlers and seem able thus to communicate 

 whatever they otherwise would by speech. 



All the fine and ornamental work is done by the men. A great 

 deal of time and labor is spent in making seemingly unimportant 

 articles, and the time consumed in shaping and burnishing an arrow 

 is astonishing, generally the larger part of two days. The shell 

 ornament worn around the neck is made by the reciprocating motion 

 of the point of a sharp instrument of flint or of iron or steel, if they 

 can obtain it, fastened near the center of a roughly shaped shell. 

 A fire is kindled in the same way by boring a wooden rod into 

 another bit of wood. When holes have been made in bits of roughly 



