194 



TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. 



The men and boys appropriated all the ornaments, thus 

 reversing the custom of civilised countries and imitating nature, 

 who invariably decorates the male sex with the most brilliant 

 colours and most remarkable ornaments. On the head all 

 wore a coronet of bright red and yellow toucans' feathers, set 

 in a circlet of plaited straw. The comb in the hair was 

 ornamented with feathers, and frequently a bunch of white 

 heron's plumes attached to it fell gracefully down the back. 

 Round the neck or over one shoulder were large necklaces of 

 many folds of white or red beads, as well as the white 

 cylindrical stone hung on the middle of a string of some black 

 shining seeds. 



The ends of the monkey-hair cords which tied the hair were 

 ornamented with little plumes, and from the arm hung a 

 bunch of curiously-shaped seeds, ornamented with bright 

 coloured feathers attached by strings of monkeys' hair. Round 

 the waist was one of their most valued ornaments, possessed 

 by comparatively few, — the girdle of ongas' teeth. And lastly, 

 tied round the ankles were large bunches of a curious hard 

 fruit, which produce a rattling sound in the dance. In their 

 hands some carried a bow and a bundle of curabfs, or war- 

 arrows ; others a murucu, or spear of hard polished wood, or 

 an oval painted gourd, filled with small stones and attached 

 to a handle, which, being shaken at regular intervals in the 

 dance, produced a rattling accompaniment to the leg ornaments 

 and the song. 



The wild and strange appearance of these handsome, naked, 

 painted Indians, with their curious ornaments and weapons, 

 the stamp and song and rattle which accompanies the dance, 

 the hum of conversation in a strange language, the music of 

 fifes and flutes and other instruments of reed, bone, and 

 turtles' shells, the large calabashes of caxiri constantly carried 

 about, and the great smoke-blackened gloomy house, produced 

 an effect to which no description can do justice, and of which 

 the sight of half-a-dozen Indians going through their dances 

 for show, gives but a very faint idea. 



I stayed looking on a considerable time, highly delighted 

 at such an opportunity of seeing these interesting people in 

 their most characteristic festivals. I was myself a great object 

 of admiration, principally on account of my spectacles, which 

 they saw for the first time and could not at all understand. 



