AND AMONG THE BOTOCUDOS. 



331 



other they always use their native language. They have plantations of 

 mandiocca, some maize and cotton for their own use. The ouvidor has 

 furnished them with a wheel to grind or bruise the mandiocca roots ; 

 but, according to the custom of their forefathers, they procure a great 

 part of their subsistence by hunting. Bows and arrows are still their 

 usual weapons, but some of them are also well skilled in the use of 

 the gun. The bows of the Machacaris differ from those of the other 

 tribes, a deep furrow being cut lengthwise in the fore part*, where 

 while one arrow is discharged another may lie ready ; so that the 

 second arrow, which the other Indians have to take up from the 

 ground, is at hand to be discharged. I here found a remarkably 

 large handsome bow of pao d'arco, which has a hook on the upper 

 part that is very serviceable to fasten the bow-string. The arrows of 

 this tribe as well as the bows are remarkably well made ; they have a 

 head of hard wood, and at the lower extremity the shaft is consider- 

 ably prolonged beyond the feathers : here too, as among all the tribes 

 of the east coast, three kinds of arrows are in use, which I have 

 already described when treating of the Puris. I found here too the 

 same knotted sacks as among the Patachos, with whom the Macha- 

 caris indeed agree in many particulars. Their make is just the same 

 as that of the Botocudos, but rather more clumsy. They are tall, 

 strong, and broad-shouldered. In general they do not much dis- 

 figure their bodies, only they tie up the memhrum virile with a bind- 

 weed like the Patachos ; most of them also make a small hole in the 

 lower lip, in which they sometimes wear a little piece of cane. They 



* Far up the river Belnionte, in Miiias Novas, there is an island, where the Machacaris, 

 Panhamis, and other tribes have settled together, and made plantations. The weapons of the 

 Machacaris, which I received from that place, exactly resemble those of the same tribe on 

 the Sucurucu ; I have likewise found these bows and arrows of the Machacaris among the 

 Botocudos. 



