THE CATAriXTS. (113 



THE PURUPURUS. 

 Among these tribes, the Purupurus, although thorough 

 savages, are perhaps the best known. They wear no clothes 

 whatever ; their habitations are small huts rudely formed of 

 boughs, which they set up on the sand. Their canoes are of 

 the rudest construction, having flat bottoms and upright sides. 

 They use neither the bow nor the gravatana, but instead have 

 a weapon called the palheta, from which they can cast an 

 arrow, as from a sling, with wonderful dexterity. Tn the 

 septum of the nose and in the ears they bore holes, in which 

 they wear rings. 



THE C'ATAUIXJS. 



Tn their immediate neighbourhood, the Catauixis tribe is 

 found. Though they go naked, they build houses, and use 

 bows and gravatanas. Their canoes are constructed of the 

 bark of a tree taken off entire. They are also cannibals, and 

 murder the people of other tribes whom they can surprise. 



Many of the least barbarous tribes have frequently large 

 meetings, when they dress up in feather ornaments of parrots 

 and macaws in a variety of curious disguises. The chief 

 wears a head-dress of toucan feathers, with the erect tail- 

 plumes rising from the crown. The mask dresses are long 

 cloaks, made of the inner bark of a tree. Sometimes they 

 manufacture head-pieces, by stretching the cloth over a basket- 

 work frame, to represent the heads of monkeys and other 

 animals. When thus dressed, they perform a monotonous see- 

 saw and stamping dance, accompanied by singing and drum- 

 ming. Often this sport is kept up for several days and nights 



