THE WIIiD INDIAN TEIBES OF THE MADEIRA VALLEY. 139 
national costume. Tliey wore — horrihile diciu ! — coloured cotton sliii'ts, 
Mack coats and iuexpressiMes, and tail hats ! Anything more ludicrons 
could not well be imagined. Generally speaking, there is nothing so 
conspicuous and ridiculous as coloiu’ed people (negro, mulatto, samho, 
or mestizo) in what they consider Sunday apparel of mn-iyaUed elegance. 
A pretty negro or mulatto gud (of the Mina tribe, for instance) looks 
quite a queen, in her way, in her eostnme of lace-trimmed chemise of 
dazzling whiteness, set ofiP by the velyet-like dark skin, her gaudy 
short petticoat ending in points below ; a white, yellow, or green kerchief, 
slung with inimitable grace tnrhanwise round her short ringlets; and 
a shawl they call panno da costa, with large blue, wMto, and Mack 
stripes, hanging carelessly over her shoulders or round her waist. Some 
coral bracelets, or ornaments of massive gold, which never saw the 
inside of a Pforzheim melting-pot, complete the outfit, whose brilliant 
colours and easy grace contrast strikingly with om’ fashionable black, 
brown, or grey strait-waistcoats. But when you see the same creature, 
after (it may be) her entering the service of some noble family as 
nurse or lady’s-maid, in a tight black silk dress; her woolly curls 
twisted, with pomatum, scissors, and comb, into a shape slightly 
resembling the chignon of her mistress; in high-heeled hoots, instead 
of her richly embroidered slippers; with some big, tasteless brooch, 
iu.stead of her corals and heavy gold filigree; — the graceful creatm-e is 
trauslbrmed into a hideously ridiculous monster : but squeamish Decency 
is not offended, and does not now, with averted head, hiss out — 
“ Shocking ! ” The same happens with our own country people : how 
much more with the Indians ! 
The Mundi-ncus have long abandoned their supremacy on the Madeira. 
They left this river even before the Conquest, I believe, to another 
powerful tribe, the Araras, who also nowadays are not held in the 
same fear as they were formerly. Towards the end of the last century, 
more than once they seriously menaced the former Mission of Ararotama, 
now Borha ; and the whole lower course ol the Madeira was haunted 
and rendered unsafe by them: but now they have totally retired to 
the forests on the right shore, whence they break out only now and 
again, appearing and disapj)earing with the rapidity of lightning. None 
of the settlers, however, will venture into one of the smallci* lateral 
valleys, where they are still kept in awe by the strong bows and 
long arrows of the former masters of the territory. The immediate 
