Chap. II. 
MUNDURUCU INDIANS. 
125 
wooden steps. There were four other houses in the 
neighbourhood, all filled with people. A fine old fel- 
low, with face, shoulders, and breast tattooed all over 
in a cross-bar pattern, was the first strange object that 
caught my eye. Most of the men lay lounging or 
sleeping in their hammocks. The women were em- 
ployed in an adjoining shed making farinlia, many of 
them being quite naked, and rushing off to the huts to 
slip on their petticoats when they caught sight of us. 
Our entrance aroused the Tushaua from a nap ; after 
rubbing his eyes he came forward and bade us welcome 
with the most formal politeness, and in very good Por- 
tuguese. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-made 
man, apparently about thirty years of age, with hand- 
some regular features, not tattooed, and a quiet good- 
humoured expression of countenance. He had been 
several times to Santarem and once to Para, learning 
the Portuguese language during these journeys. He 
was dressed in shirt and trousers made of blue-checked 
cotton cloth and there was not the slightest trace of the 
savage in his appearance or demeanour. I was told 
that he had come into the chieftainship by inheritance, 
and that the Cupari horde of Mundurucus, over which his 
fathers had ruled before him, was formerly much more 
numerous, furnishing 300 bows in time of war. They 
could now scarcely muster forty ; but the horde has no 
longer a close political connection with the main body 
of the tribe, which inhabits the banks of the Tapajos, 
six days' journey from the Cupari settlement. 
I spent the remainder of the day here, sending Aracu 
and the men to fish, whilst I amused myself with the 
