AND VISIT TO THE PURIS AT ST. FIDELIS. 



115 



arrows, which, as well as all their effects, they at our desire bartered 

 for trifles. 



We received these remarkable people in the most friendly manner. 

 Two of them had been brought up in their childhood among the 

 Portuguese, and spoke their language a little — hence they are often 

 of great use to the fazen^as. We gave them knives, rosaries, small 

 looking-glasses, and distributed among them some bottles of sugar- 

 brandy, on which they became extremely cheerful and familiar. We 

 informed them of our intention to visit them in their woods early 

 the next morning, if they would receive us well : and on our promismg 

 also to bring some other presents with us, they took their leave highly 

 pleased, and with loud shouts and singing hastened back to their 

 wilds. 



We had scarcely left the house the next morning, when we per- 

 ceived the Indians coming out of the Avoods. We hastened to meet 

 them, treated them immediately with brandy, and accompanied them 

 to the forest. When we rode round the sugar-works of the fazenda, we 

 found the whole horde of the Puris lying on the grass. The groupe of 

 naked brown figures presented a most singular and highly interesting 

 spectacle. Men, women, and children, were huddled together, and 

 contemplated us with curious but timid looks. They had all adorned 

 themselves as much as possible : only a few of the women wore a 

 cloth round the waist or over the breast ; but most of them \a ere 

 without any covering. Some of the men had by wny of ornament 

 a piece of the skin of a monkey, of the kind called 7)iono ( ateks ) 

 fastened round their brows ; and we observed also a few who had cut 

 off their hair quite close. The women carried their little children 

 partly in bandages made of bass, which were fastened over the right 

 shoulder; others carried them on their backs, supported by broad 

 bandages passing over the forehead. This is the manner in which 

 they usually carry their baskets of provisions when they travel. Some 

 of the men and girls were much painted ; thev had a red spot on 



