Sei'iembek 7, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Exploration of the Xingu. 



The German explorers, Karl and Wilhelm von den Steinen, em- 

 barked in Rio de Janeiro, July 21, for Germany, after nearly a year 

 spent among- the Indians of Matlo (}rosso. The ex|)laration of the 

 Xingu in 1884 by the two Von den Steinens and Claus revealed the 

 fact that in this region exist a number of tribes who are not acquainted 

 with the existence of a white race, and who may literally be said to 

 represent the primitive condition of the Brazilian Indians in the 

 stone age and before the discovery of America. Furthermore, the 

 diversity in the language of these tribes indicates a variety of eth- 

 nological groups, and offers a rare opportunity for studying the 

 apparently insoluble riddle of the natural classification of the Bra- 

 zilian aborigines. The importance of the results of the 18S4 expe- 

 dition, and still more those that might be expected from future 

 work in such a promising field, led Dr. Karl von den Steinen, after 

 the publication of his book, to resolve upon a new exploration, in 

 which he was warmly seconded by European ethnologists. The 

 new expedition, unlike the first, which was organized mainly with 

 a view to geographical work, came prepared to give chief promi- 

 nence to ethnology. Dr. Karl von den Steinen, who proposed to 

 devote his attention principally to language-work, was accompanied 

 by his cousin Wilhelm, one of the original Xingu party, as artist ; 

 Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, who had already made important ethnological 

 studies in Brazil, as assistant ethnologist and photographer ; and 

 Dr. Peter Yogel as geographer and geologist. 



Leaving Rio de Janeiro in February of last year, the party was 

 delayed in ascending the Paraguay by the existence of cholera 

 along that river, until the beginning of June, the interval being em- 

 ployed in an examination of the shell-heaps of Santa Catharina. 

 The president of Matto Grosso furnished an escort of four soldiers 

 under command of an ensign. Another ensign, who had accom- 

 panied in part the 18S4 expedition, and had since retired from the 

 service, joined the expedition as a volunteer. A civilized Bakairi 

 Indian, Antonio, also of the 1884 party, was engaged as interpreter, 

 making up, with the necessary camaradas, a party of fourteen. 

 The expedition left Cuyaba July 2S, the explorers on foot, and serv- 

 ing as occasion required as pconcs, trail-cutters, and oarsmen. 

 Proceeding first to the Paranatinga, an affluent of the Tapajos, for 

 whose exploration a party of Brazilian engineers was lately fitted 

 out, several astronomical determinations were made abou* the head 

 waters of that river. The party then marched to the north-east, 

 passed the Batovy branch of the Xingu, explored in 1884, and on 

 the 7th of September reached the Kuliseu, where a permanent 

 camp was made for a portion of the party, that remained in charge 

 of the animals and baggage, while the explorers descended the 

 river in bark canoes made on the spot, to the confluence of the 

 Kuliseu with the Batovy. The first Indians met with belonged to 

 the Bakairi tribe, with whom, as the language was already known, 

 communication was readily made, and with whom the explorers 

 spent several weeks, accompanying them on their fishing and hunt- 

 ing excursions, in their agricultural labors (performed entirely with 

 stone and wooden implements), in their festivities, and, in fact, in 

 all the phases of their life. The next and most numerous tribe was 

 the Nahuqua, who, like the Bakairi, belong to the Carib family, 

 which is supposed by Dr. von den Steinen to have migrated north- 

 ward to the Caribbean Sea from some point in Central Brazil. The 

 Nahuqua have a number of villages on the Kuliseu and on the 

 Kuluene, the principal branch of the Xingu, with which the former 

 unites. The sudden arrival of a large party so alarmed these 

 people, that it became very difficult to study them, and in con- 

 sequence Dr. von den Steinen resolved to make his entry alone, or 

 with only a small number of Indian companions, in the villages of 

 the other tribes, in order to establish friendly relations before the 

 arrival of the full party. This somewhat hazardous experiment was 

 tried first with two completely savage Bakairi companionsin a village 

 of Mehinaku Indians, the only weapon carried being a revolver. 

 The traveller was received by a tumultuous crowd of naked savages, 

 shouting, brandishing bows and arrows, and beating their breasts, 

 who seized him by the wrists, and with considerable violence led 

 him to the central feast-house, where he was plumped down on a 

 bench, and made the recipient of a shower of questions and of hos- 



pitable presents of cakes and porridge. A German speech and 

 sundry recitations from Goethe, delivered with hearty laughter, were 

 accepted as a reply to the unintelligible questions, and friendly rela- 

 tions were soon established. 



Other tribes are the Auatihu, Vaura and Kustenau, Yaualapiti, 

 Camaiura, and Trumai. The Camaiura are true Tupi, and mani- 

 fested great satisfaction on hearing the common names of plants 

 and animals that have been incorporated in Portuguese. The 

 Trumai. by their language and physique, differ markedly from all 

 the other tribes. They had been met with in 1884, but the 

 accidental discharge of a gun so alarmed them that no communi- 

 cation could be established. After that, they suffered greatly from 

 the attacks of the Suya, a Botocudo tribe living lower down the river, 

 and, retreating southward, were naturally greatly alarmed on meet- 

 ing again the strangers with the thundering arms of the former 

 encounter. 



Returning to Cuyaba near the end of December, the travellers 

 had an opportunity for studying the Pareci, and afterwards made 

 an excursion to the river Sao Lourengo to examine the Bororo 

 or Coroado. The Von den Steinens then descended the Para- 

 guay, and spent some time examining the Indian remains in 

 that province. Dr. Ehrenreich proceeded to Goyaz to descend 

 the Araguaya to Para ; and Dr. Vogel remained behind to ex- 

 plore geographically the highlands between the Paraguay and 

 Parana, with the especial object of opening a road from the colony 

 of Sao Lourengo to Santa Anna do Paranahiba, on the Parana, 

 which was successfully accomplished. 



The scientific results of the expedition far exceeded the most 

 sanguine expectations. In a lecture before the Geographical Soci- 

 ety of Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Karl von den Steinen presented the fol- 

 lowing general observations on the Indians of the upper Xingu. 



As a rule, they are of low stature, but well proportioned and 

 agile, of light clay color, with black hair, which is wavy in some 

 individuals. The women wear the hair hanging loose to the 

 shoulders : the men cut it in a circle about the base of the skull, 

 and in some tribes shave the crown of the head. All the hairs of the 

 face, including the eyebrows, and of the body, are carefully pulled 

 out. The Trumai are distinguished from the others by a weaker 

 physique and more brutal physiognomy. The only clothing worn 

 is a triangular tatiga of palm-leaves, " bigger than the eye, but not 

 so big as the ear," used by the women. The body is smeared 

 with coal-dust or oil colored with annatto. The houses, round or 

 elliptical and high and airy, are generally built in a circle about 

 a central feast-house, which is uninhabited, and into which the 

 women are not permitted to enter. As a better safeguard against 

 feminine curiosity, the entrance to this house is a mere hole less 

 than a metre high. This structure is also used as a guest-house. 

 The usual habitations serve for several families ; the hammocks of 

 palm-fibre, or cotton woven by hand between two stakes driven in 

 the ground, being hung from a post in the centre to the sides. 

 Each house has several fireplaces, and care is taken to keep the fire 

 alive during the night to avoid the troublesome process of produ- 

 cing it by stick-rubbing. 



Agriculture and fishing furnish the principal means of suste- 

 nance. The chase is comparatively unimportant. Dogs are un- 

 known, and domesticated animals are limited to a few birds, prin- 

 cipally of the parrot tribe. Corn, cotton, tobacco, sweet-potatoes 

 and other tubers, are cultivated. Rice, cane, mandioca, and the 

 banana are unknown. The plantations are of considerable extent, 

 and compare favorably with those of the whites of Matto Grosso. 

 The forest is cleared by the use of polished stone axes about the 

 size of the fist, fixed in a wooden handle. The teeth of certain 

 fishes serve for knives, and river shells as scrapers for working in 

 wood. For hoes or ploughs, pointed sticks and the claws of the 

 giant armadillo are used. The stones preferred for axes come 

 from stream-beds in the possession of a single tribe. The com- 

 mercial relations, however, are limited to an exchange of presents 

 without idea of relative values. In the first trade made with the 

 explorers, for an axe, a large canoe, which had to be carried for two 

 leagues on the shoulders of six men. was gladly given in exchange. 

 On another occasion a b.isket of fruit gathered in the presence of 

 the party was offered for the same coveted instrument. 



Another object of Indian barter is potter)', made only by the 



