Travels in the Brazils, ' 75 



from the body to take with them ; for the fleshless trunk and 

 head of the boj were afterwards found. The savages then betook 

 themselves to the impenetrable woods. The roasted hands 

 and feet were also recognized^ bearing the marks of teeth. 

 The feitor exposed to these injuries had conceived for them 

 an indelible hatred, and declared that he should be happy 

 to shoot even our P?^ri-boy. " It is incomprehensible, added 

 he, that the government does not adopt more efficient mea- 

 sures for the extirpation of these beasts; for it is only neces- 

 sary to go a little higher up the river and immediately 

 come upon their dwellings." Their vicinity is undoubtedly 

 very disagreeable, but it should be remembered that the 

 planters by their early bad conduct to these people have 

 themselves chiefly to blame. In the first period of settlement, 

 avarice and the thirst of gold destroyed all feelings of humanity 

 in the breasts of the Europeans ; and they considered these 

 naked brown men as mere beasts created for their service, as 

 is proved by its having been proposed as a question for argu- 

 ment among the clergy of Spanish America— Whether 

 savages ought to be deemed human beings like the Europeans ? 

 To prove that the Puris sometimes eat their fallen foes, much 

 testimony is to be found in this country. Pater Jodo assured 

 us at S. Fidelis, that when he was travelling on the Itapemirim, 

 he saw a murdered negro without arms or legs, around which 

 a number of Unibus was collected. It has been already ob- 

 served, that the P7*m would never confess that they eat human 

 flesh, but, after the authentic proofs which have been adduced, 

 their own confession cannot be brought into account. Even our 

 Puris allowed that his kindred tribe place the head of a slain 

 enemy upon a pole and dance round it. Even among the 

 Coroados of Minas Geraes, it is customary, according to the 

 declaration of M. Freyreiss, to put an arm or foot of the 

 enemy into a pot with liquor which the guests then drink. 

 Our stay at Muribecca was very productive of subjects for 

 our collection of natural history. Notwithstanding the badness 

 of the weather our hunters were very diligent and out at every 

 favourable moment. 



In the great woods and marshes of the Ifabapuana the Anas 

 Moschata, (Linn.) to us a new bird, builds its nest. This beautiful 

 creature, of which the tame race is known in Europe by the 

 name of the Turkey-duck, is distinguishable by the dark red, 

 pimpled skin which surrounds the parts about the eyes and 

 the bill ; the entire plumage is black, diversified with green and 

 purple; the shoulders of the \yings are, in the old birds, of a 

 snowy white, with the young ones, on the contrary, black. 

 The old cock is very large and heavy, and has I'athejL* hard 



