Chap. 11. 
TATTOOING. 
127 
dren. Before they were discovered the hungry savages 
had uprooted all the macasheira, sweet potatoes, and 
sugar cane, which the industrious Mundurucus had 
planted for the season, on the east side of the river. 
As soon as they were seen they made off, but the 
Tushaua quickly got together all the young men of 
the settlement, about thirty in number, who armed 
themselves with guns, bows and arrows, and javelins, 
and started in pursuit. They tracked them, as be- 
fore related, for two days through the forest, but lost 
their traces on the farther bank of the Cuparitinga, 
a branch stream flowing from the north-east. The 
pursuers thought, at one time, they were close upon 
them, having found the inextinguished fire of their last 
encampment. The footmarks of the chief could be 
distinguished from the rest by their great size and 
the length of the stride. A small necklace made of 
scarlet beans was the only trophy of the expedition, 
and this the Tushaua gave to me. 
I saw very little of the other male Indians, as they 
were asleep in their huts all the afternoon. There 
were two other tattooed men lying under an open shed, 
besides the old man already mentioned. . One of them 
presented a strange appearance, having a semicircular 
black patch in the middle of his face, covering the 
bottom of the nose and mouth, crossed lines on his 
back and breast, and stripes down his arms and legs. It 
is singular that the graceful curved patterns used by the 
South Sea Islanders, are quite unknown among the Bra- 
zilian red men ; they being all tattooed either in simple 
lines or patches. The nearest approach to elegance of 
