120 



STAY AT VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR, 



at this sacred emblem of the Catholic church ; they have also a strong 

 predilection for red woollen caps, knives, and red handkerchiefs, and 

 most readily parted with their bows and arrows in exchange for these 

 articles ; the women were very eager after looking-glasses, but they 

 set no value upon scissors. We obtained from them by barter a great 

 number of bows and arrows, and several large baskets. The latter 

 are of green palm-leaves interwoven together ; below, where they lie 

 against the back, they have a bottom of platted work, and a high 

 border of the same on the sides, but are generally open at top. 

 They carry them, as we have already observed, and likewise their 

 children, fastened on their backs by a bandage passing over the fore- 

 head, and sometimes to a band running across the shoulders. 



All the savages frequently offer for sale large balls of wax, which 

 they collect when gathering wild honey. They use this dark-brown 

 wax in preparing their bows and arrows, and also for candles, which 

 they sell to the Portuguese. The Tapuyas make these candles, which 

 burn extremely well, by wrapping a wick of cotton round a thin stick 

 of wax, and then rolling the whole firmly together. They set a high 

 value on their knife, which they fasten to a string round the neck, 

 and let it hang down upon the back ; it frequently consists only of a 

 piece of iron, which they are constantly whetting on stones, and 

 thus keep it very sharp. If you give them a knife they generally 

 break off the handle, and make another according to their own taste, 

 putting the blade between two pieces of wood, which they bind fast 

 together with a string. 



After we had finished our traffic we remounted our horses, and 

 rode to other huts, farther in the forest ; the way was fatiguing, 

 narrow, full of roots of trees, and up and down hill. Some of the 

 savages got up behind us on our horses, and a whole troop of Coroado 

 Indians from St. Fidelis accompanied us on foot. In a little solitary 

 valley, in the middle of the forest, we found the house of a Portu- 



