324 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A J OS 



July, and last throughout the dry months ; the women 

 generally accompanying the warriors to carry their arrows 

 and javelins. They had the diabolical custom, in former 

 days, of cutting ofi the heads of their slain enemies, and 

 preserving them as trophies around their houses. I be- 

 lieve this, together with other savage practices, has been 

 relinquished in those parts where they have had long 

 intercourse with the Brazilians, for I could neither see 

 nor hear anything of these preserved heads. They used 

 to sever the head with knives made of broad bamboo, 

 and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy parts, 

 soak it in bitter vegetable oil (andiroba), and expose it 

 for several days over the smoke of a fire or in the sun. 

 In the tract of country between the Tapajos and the 

 Madeira, a deadly war has been for many years carried 

 on between the Mundurucus and the Araras. I was told 

 by a Frenchman at Santarem, who had visited that part, 

 that all the settlements there have a military organization. 

 A separate shed is built outside of each village, where 

 the fighting men sleep at night, sentinels being stationed 

 to give the alarm with blasts of the Ture on the approach 

 of the Araras, who choose the night for their onslaughts. 



Each horde of Mundurucus has its paje or medicine 

 tnan, who is the priest and doctor ; fixes upon the time 

 most propitious for attacking the enemy ; exorcises evil 

 spirits, and professes to cure the sick. All illness whose 

 origin is not very apparent is supposed to be caused by 

 a worm in the part affected. This the paje pretends to 

 extract ; he blows on the seat of pain the smoke from 

 a large cigar, made with an air of great mystery by 

 rolling tobacco in folds of Tauari, and then sucks the 

 place, drawing from his mouth, when he has finished, 

 what he pretends to be the worm. It is a piece of very 

 clumsy conjuring. One of these pajes was sent for by a 

 woman in Joao Malagueita's family, to operate on a child 

 who suffered much from pains in the head. Senhor Joao 

 contrived to get possession of the supposed worm after 

 the trick was performed in our presence, and it turned 

 out to be a long white air^^root of some plant. The paje 

 was with difficulty persuaded to operate whilst Senhor 

 Joao and I were present. I cannot help thinking that 

 he, as well as all others of the same profession, are con- 

 scious impostors, handing down the shallow secret of their 

 divinations and tricks from generation to generation. 



