144 BRAZILIAN ROCK INSCRIPTIONS. 
the drawings at Ereré, and the pottery in Marajó may have flat- 
tened the head as the Omaguas and Flatheads do to-day, which 
would give a greater prominence to the brows than in the normally 
shaped skull. 
The stiff angular position of the arms and legs of the figures is 
interesting, the upper arms being held at right angles to the body, 
the forearm bent at a similar angle and usually upwards. The 
legs are wide apart, the thigh extending often straight out from 
the body. The figures are usually erect, but there is one on 
the west end of the Serra represented as lying on the side, Pl. 7, 
fig. 2. Below it is a figure of a snake, the whole appearing to 
commemorate the death of some one from snake-bite. Some of the 
heads are rayed as in the case of Pl. 3, fig. 1. These may per- 
haps represent the sun or moon. Some rough drawings of the 
human face are made on 
angular projections of 
the rock, as is the case 
with that figured in Pl. 
10, where the 
sharp edge represented 
the nose. Another face 
is made by drawing lines 
around two contiguous; 
circular depressions, CON- 
verting them into eyes, 
and drawing a straight 
line below for a nose. 
It is interesting to ob- 
serve that the hands and 
feet are always represented by radiating lines, usually only three 
digits being drawn for each hand and foot. The number of digits 
represented rarely reaches four, and never five, so far as I have ob- 
served. An explanation of this may perhaps lie in the fact that 
many tribes of Brazil are unable to count beyond three or four. O 
the lower animals, several kinds are represented, but so rudely that 
it is, in most cases, difficult to determine the species. ‘The large 
figure, Pl. 5, fig. 6, my Indian guide pronounced a muc úra, & Spe- 
cies of opossum, and he called the four-legged and long-tailed ani- 
mals, Pl. 9, alligators. Birds appear to be rarely represented. On 
Pl. 9, are two figures, b and d, that may be intended for these ani- 
Group of Rock Paintings at Ereré. 
