AND VISIT TO THE PURIS AT ST. FIDELIS. 



117 



and arrows, in their hands. Some of the South American tribes, 

 especially on the Maranham, have short lances of hard wood adorned 

 with feathers ; others, for instance, those of Paraguay, Matto Grosso, 

 Cuyaba, and Guyana, as well as the Tupi tribes on the east coast of 

 Brazil, made use of short clubs of hard wood, and have not even yet 

 wholly laid them aside ; but the principal weapon of all these abori- 

 ginal American nations is the large bow and long arrow. Only a few 

 tribes inhabiting the plains of South America, the Pampas of Buenos 

 Ayres, and some parts of Paraguay, being almost always on horse- 

 back, and carrying a long lance as their chief weapon, have, like 

 most of the native African tribes, only a small bow and a short arrow. 

 Not so the Tapuyas on the east coast ; their only arms consist in the 

 colossal bow and arrow, which like the Payaguas in Paraguay, they 

 carry not in a quiver, but on account of its great length only in the 

 hand. The bow of the Puris and Coroados measures six feet and a 

 half, or even more. It is smooth, made of the hard tough dark- 

 brown wood of the airi-palm, and has a string composed of fibres of 

 grawaihd (hromelia). The arrows of the Puris are often above six 

 feet long, and made of a firm knotty reed ( taquara), which grows 

 in the dry woods, feathered at the lower extremity, with beautiful 

 blue or red feathers, or with those of the peacock-pheasant ( crax 

 alector. Linn.) or of the jacutinga (penelope leucoptera). Those of 

 the Coroados are made of another reed, which has no joints. The 

 arrows of all these various tribes are of three different kinds, which 

 are distinguished by their points or heads. The first is properly the 

 war-arrow. It has a head of broad cane of the plant before-men- 

 tioned under the name of taquarussd, cut sharp at the edges and 

 very pointed. The second kind has a long head of airi wood, with. 

 many barbs on one side. The third, which has a blunt point, is 

 used to kill small animals. I shall describe them more particularly in 

 the sequel, as being in general alike among all the Tapuyas of the 



