^48 



TRAVELS EN BRAZIL. 



ashes before the fire, or in a hammock of its own, 

 and soon shows itself able to fetch the larvae of 

 insects and fruits from the forest. Thus left to 

 themselves, the children grow up : the boy soon 

 follows his father to the chase, learns to use the 

 bow and arrow, exercises himself in making strings 

 of the fibres of palm leaves {tucum*)^ imitates, 

 by loosely intertwining the cords, all kinds of 

 animals, fish, serpents, &c., and amuses him- 

 self with the bodoqzie, a kind of sling, from which they 

 discharge bullets of clay, to kill small birds. The 

 women begin to menstruate early, but sparingly. 

 The period generally continues regularly for three 

 days, but is said to cease before they have attained 

 an advanced age. The males marry at the age of 

 fifteen to eighteen ; the girls from ten to twelve. 

 Marriage is not a remarkable period in their life ; 

 and these Indians, who do not, like those on the 

 river of the Amazons, celebrate by particular festi- 

 vals the time when the youths as well as the 

 maidens become marriageable, have but few divi- 

 sions in their life. Only the birth and death give 

 occasion to particular ceremonies ; their festivals 

 are kept without regard to the season of the year. 

 Occasion is principally taken from the ripening of 

 the fruit. It is very common for several families 

 to quit their abodes, and settle where new fruits 

 are ripening, or where the chase is more produc- 



* Especially of the Tucuma palm (Astrocaryum vulgar e^MsiTU) 

 and others of the same genus. (See Palm. Bras. pL 58—64.) 



