310 STAY ON THE RIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE, 



of the natural colour. In the first chapter of the second part we 

 shall give a description of the various modes in which these savages 

 are accustomed to paint themselves. 



Jucakemet had also arrived here : he was one of the tallest Botocu- 

 dos that I had seen, and wore very large pieces of wood in his ears 

 and lower lip. He had lately had a violent quarrel, as we were 

 told, with Captain Gipakeiu, the leader of another party, and had 

 even struck him, on which the other discharged an arrow at him, and 

 wounded him slightly in the neck. He shewed us the scar. Jucake- 

 met now carefully avoided that part of the country in which Captain 

 Gipakeiu was ranging about ; he was at the Salto, on the south bank 

 of the river, and the latter on the north bank, in the country round 

 the Quartel dos Arcos, engaged in hunting the wild swine in the 

 great forests. The road to Minas runs close to the buildings of this 

 station: from this place, upwards, it is passable and in good condi- 

 tion; but as we have observed before, downwards to Belmonte it 

 cannot be used. A troop of mules, laden with cotton, had come 

 down from Minas a few days before, and had taken salt in return ; 

 an article which is very scarce in that mountainous country. Some 

 Mineiros, who were here for the purposes of trade, likewise com- 

 plained much of the neglect of this boasted road on the lower parts of 

 the river. When they travel this road, they give to their mules 

 every day a mixture of oil and gunpowder, which they assert to be 

 an excellent remedy against the effects of the unwholesome pasturage 

 that is met with on some parts of the road ; they are also accustomed 

 often to give the animals a little salt. If this road were really as good as 

 it has been represented, a considerable trade would soon be estabhshed 

 with Minas, since the conveyance of goods by water from the Salto is 

 attended with many difficulties, and the more so, as they must be all 

 carried with great labour from the landing-place to the Quartel. It 

 would at least be very easy to make a good road from the Salto to 



