114 



STAY AT VILLA DE ST. SALVADOE, 



women with their children, had accepted the invitation to meet us. 

 They were all short, not above five feet five inches high ; most of 

 them, the women as well as the men, were broad and strong-limbed*. 

 They were all quite naked, except a few who wore handkerchiefs 

 round their waists, or short breeches, which they had obtained from 

 the Portuguese. Some had their heads entirely shorn ; others had 

 their naturally thick coal-black hair, cut over the eyes, and hanging 

 down into the neck : some of them had their beards and eyebrows 

 cut short. In general they have but little beard ; in most of them 

 it forms only a thin circle round the mouth, and hangs down about 

 three inches below the chin-j-. Some had painted on their foreheads 

 and cheeks round red spots with iirucu (bixa orellana. Linn.) ; on the 

 breast and arms, on the contrary, they all had dark blue stripes, made 

 with the juice of the genipaba fruit, (genipa Americana, Linn.): 

 these are the two colours which are employed by all the Tapiiyas. 

 Round the neck, or across the breast and one shoulder, they had 

 roAvs of hard black berries strung together, in the middle of which, 

 in front, was a number of the eye-teeth of monkeys, ounces, cats, 

 and wild animals. Some of them wore these necklaces without teeth. 

 They have another similar ornament, which appears to be composed 

 of the rind of certain vegetable excrescences, probably of the thorns 

 of some shrub;]:. The men carry in their hands long bows and 



* Among the tribes on the east coast which I have seen, I consider the Puris to be the 

 smallest in stature. Mr. Freyreiss states, that in Minas Geraes, these men are stronger built 

 than the Coroados. I did not find this observation confirmed at St. Fidelis, for there the 

 majority of the latter were taller and moi'e robust. 



t Many writers have greatly erred, in calling the Americans beardless, though their beard 

 is generally thin and weak. A tribe of the natives, distinguished by having stronger beards, 

 is said to have dwelt on the Sypotaba ; the Portuguese, therefore, called them Barbados. 



X This ornament consists of dark brown, hollow, elongated bodies, which in shape per - 

 fectly resemble a dentalmm, and were therefore presumed to be of animal origin, till a 

 more careful examination shewed, that they were a rind or bark, and doubtless the env elope 

 of certain thorns. They are said to be also found on the Caxociras (falls) of the Paraiba. 



