AND AMONG THE BOTOCUDOS. 301 



assembled crowd of the Botocudos, who with greedy eyes seemed 

 already to devour the booty. They were immediately all in a bustle, 

 and very urgently offered their services to singe and prepare the 

 swine, if we M'ould give them a part. The savages are in fact ex- 

 tremely dextrous in this operation; young and old fell to work with- 

 out loss of time; they immediately kindled several fires, threw the 

 swine into the flame, quickly singed off the hair, scraped them clean, 

 took out the entrails and washed them in the river; they received the 

 head and the entrails for their pains. The soldiers were then em- 

 ployed to cut up the carcases, to divide them into thin pieces and put 

 them in salt ; by which means we were furnished with provisions for 

 some time. 



Besides this supply of an urgent want, this excursion had procured 

 many interesting subjects of natural history. My people had shot a 

 Brazilian crane, (palamedea cornuta, Linn.) which it is not easy to 

 kill, by cautiously approaching it on a sand-bank. As it was only 

 lamed in the wing, it was preserved alive for some time and observed. 

 Buffon has given a pretty correct representation of this bird by the 

 name of camichi. Ours was a male, and had a pretty large horn 

 upon the forehead (which the female bird also bears) merely attached 

 to the skin, and therefore moveable. The Botocudos, encouraged by 

 our diligence in hunting, also made excursions into the woods, from 

 which they returned with some deer, agutis, and other animals, 

 which in general they devoured immediately. They roast the flesh, 

 which is called bucaniren or muquiar, and dry at the fire what they 

 do not immediately eat, in order to preserve it. My assistant in 

 hunting, Aho, once shot several animals from a tree, and returned 

 much pleased ; but after such a successful excursion he always good- 

 naturedly shared his game with his countrymen. 



Many Botocudos had gone into the forest with borrowed axes, to 

 make new bows and arrows, to supply the place of those which they 



