TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 247 



cursions load themselves with everything neces- 

 sary, like beasts of burden ; nay, even fetch from 

 the forest the game killed by the man. As soon 

 as the woman is evidently pregnant, or has been 

 delivered, the man withdraws. A strict regimen is 

 observed before the birth ; the man and the woman 

 refrain for a time from the flesh of certain animals, 

 and live chiefly on fish and fruits. When the mo- 

 ment of birth approaches, the woman goes into the 

 forest, where she is delivered alone, concealed from 

 the light of the moon, generally without any 

 assistance : the navel string is torn, or bitten in 

 two with the teeth. Immediately after her de- 

 livery, she goes into the stream, washes herself and 

 the child, and then attends to her household em- 

 ployments as before. Some time after the child and 

 the mother are fumigated, from the mouth of the 

 paje, with a kind of tobacco (jpetum)', on which oc- 

 casions the neighbours often assemble for the pur- 

 pose of drinking vinhassa, and of tumultuous 

 dancing. Infants at the breast are carefully pro- 

 tected against the moon, which is said to produce 

 sicknesses. The mother often keeps them at the 

 breast till they are between four and five years of 

 age ; the child grows up, loved instinctively by 

 the mother, not at all by the father, and with little 

 care being taken of it. As long as it is unable to 

 walk, it is carried about by the mother on her 

 back, and sleeps between the parents in the ham- 

 mock ; afterwards it takes its own way, lies in the 



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