AND VISIT TO THE PUIIIS OT ST. FIDELIS. 



119 



all the Brazilian tribes : they never suffer it to go out, and keep it up 

 the whole night, because they would otherwise, owing to the want of 

 clothing, suffer severely from the cold ; and because it is also attended 

 with the important advantage of scaring all wild beasts from their huts. 

 Such a habitation is abandoned by the sa^ ages without regret, M'hen 

 the adjacent country no longer supplies them with a sutHciency of 

 food ; they then remove to other parts where they find greater abun- 

 dance of monkeys, swine, deer, pacas, agidls, and other game. 

 In this neighbourhood the Puris are reported to have shot a great 

 number of the bearded ape, and they in fact offered to sell us several 

 half-roasted pieces of that animal ; one of these was a head, the other 

 a breast with the arms, but without the head ; a truly disgusting 

 sight ! especially, because they roast all their game with the skin on, 

 which is thus scorched black. These tough half-raw dainties they tear 

 in pieces with their strong white teeth. They are said to devour in 

 the same manner human flesh out of revenge ; but as for their 

 eating their own deceased relations, as a last token of affection, ac- 

 cording to the report of some early writers, no trace of such a custom 

 is to be found, at least in our times, among the Tapiiyas on the east 

 coast. The Portuguese on the Paraiba universally assert that the Puris 

 feast on the flesh of the enemies they have killed, and there really 

 seems to be some truth in this assertion, as will appear in the sequel ; 

 but they would never confess it to us. When we questioned them on 

 the subject, they answered that the Botocudos only had this custom. 

 Mawe relates that the Indians at Canta Gallo ate birds without 

 plucking them. I never saw a savage do this ; they even carefully 

 take out the entrails, and probably had a mind to amuse the English 

 traveller by shewing him some extraordinary trick. 



As soon as we reached the huts our exchange of commodities was 

 set on foot. We made the women presents of rosaries, of which they 

 are particularly fond, though they pulled off the cross, and laughed 



