^36 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



the Portuguese. During the drinking feast they had 

 remained concealed in the neighbouring wood ; but 

 having been invited by our guide, after it was over, 

 they came, though late in the night, after all the 

 Coroados had retired to their huts, and being en- 

 couraged by presents, showed themselves ready to 

 dance. They were quite naked. Some women had 

 drawings resembling serpents on their arms, and 

 other figures of black and red colours on their faces. 

 From native modesty they hid themselves behind 

 the men, or walked stooping. We gave them pins, 

 narrow ribbons, leaden soldiers and horsemen. 

 They tied the latter to strings which they suspended 

 round their necks. On this occasion we had an 

 opportunity of pitying the ignorance of this people. 

 After they had received this present with eager 

 looks, and examined it a long time, they felt the 

 head, mouth, and feet of the horses, and those of the 

 leaden soldiers, and seemed desirous of convincing 

 themselves, by repeated examination and feeling, 

 whether they were animate or inanimate. When 

 they had been made familiar, and treated with 

 plentiful draughts of brandy, of which, like all 

 Indians, they are passionately fond, they began their 

 dance by night, on an open spot not far from the 

 fazenda of Guidowald. If the compact low stature, 

 the brown red colour, the jet black hair hanging 

 down in disorder, the disagreeable form of their 

 broad angular countenances, the small oblique 

 unsteady blinking eyes, and lastly the tripping short 



