A MIRANHA GIRL 



367 



most nourishing food ; but it was all of no avail : she sank 

 rapidly ; her liver was enormously swollen and almost as 

 hard to the touch as stone. There was something un- 

 commonly pleasing in her ways, and quite unlike any- 

 thing I had yet seen in Indians. Instead of being dull 

 and taciturn, she was always smiling and full of talk. We 

 had an old woman of the same tribe to attend her, who 

 explained what she said to us. She often begged to be 

 taken to the river to bathe ; asked for fruit, or coveted 

 articles she saw in the room for playthings. Her native 

 name was Oria. The last week or two she could not rise 

 from the bed we had made for her in a dry corner of the 

 room : when she wanted lifting, which was very often, 

 she would allow no one to help her but me, calling me by 

 the name of ' Cariwa * (white man), the only word of Tupi 

 she seemed to know. It was inexpressibly touching to 

 hear her as she lay, repeating by the hour the verses which 

 she had been taught to recite with her companions in her 

 native village : a few sentences repeated over and over 

 again with a rhythmic accent, and relating to objects and 

 incidents connected with the wild life of her tribe. We 

 had her baptised before she died, and when this latter 

 event happened, in opposition to the wishes of the big 

 people of Ega, I insisted on burying her with the same 

 honours as a child of the whites ; that is, as an * anjinho ' 

 (little angel), according to the pretty Roman Catholic 

 custom of the country. We had the corpse clothed in a 

 robe of fine calico, crossed her hands on her breast over 

 a * palma ' of flowers, and made also a crown of flowers for 

 her head. Scores of helpless children like our poor Oria 

 die at Ega, or on the road ; but generally not the slightest 

 care is taken of them during their illness. They are the 

 captives made during the merciless raids of one section of 

 the Miranha tribe on the territories of another, and sold 

 to the Ega traders. The villages of the attacked hordes 

 are surprised, and the men and women killed or driven into 

 the thickets without having time to save their children. 

 There appears to be no doubt that the Miranhas are canni- 

 bals, and, therefore, the purchase of these captives prob- 

 ably saves them from a worse fate. The demand for them 

 at Ega operates, however, as a direct cause of the supply, 

 stimulating the unscrupulous chiefs, who receive all the 

 profits to undertake these murderous expeditions. 



It is remarkable how quickly the savages of the various 



