TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



tive. After a successful campaign, their victories 

 are celebrated by noisy dances and songs ; and the 

 Coroados are accustomed to pierce with arrows the 

 limbs of their enemies, the Puris, when any of them 

 fall into their power, and to pass them from hand 

 to hand at their drinking feasts to suck them. 



The Indians are seldom sick, and generally live to 

 an advanced age, which, however, is very seldom in- 

 dicated by grey hair. They frequently come to an 

 untimely end by violence or accident. Their most 

 common complaints are inflammations of the eyes 

 and of the bowels ; diseases of the liver, diarrhoea, 

 dysentery, and ague, which are chiefly caused by 

 their mode of life in the damp foggy woods. The 

 Portuguese ascribe the inflammations of the eyes 

 to their eating the flesh of the tapir. No trace of 

 syphilis, small-pox, or measles is met with among 

 those Indians who have no intercourse with the 

 Europeans ; but when introduced among them, 

 these disorders very rapidly spread, and soon 

 carry them off. Their best remedies are repose 

 and strict regimen. When they are seized by 

 any disease, they make a fire near their ham- 

 mock, in which they lay themselves down quietly, 

 and pass several days fasting. If the danger in- 

 creases, the paje is called in. He tries fumigations, 

 rubbing with certain herbs, or with saliva ; knead- 

 ing, breathing, and spitting on the part affected. 

 They bear the pain of wounds with incredible in- 

 sensibiHty ; and, when it is necessary, they do not 



