498 
ON THE ABORIGINES 
canoes ; no attempt is made to prevent them, and she is 
then considered as married. 
Some tribes, as the Uacarras, have a trial of skill at 
shooting with the bow and arrow, and if the young man 
does not show himself a good marksman, the girl refuses 
him, on the ground that he will not be able to shoot 
fish and game enough for the family. 
The dead are almost always buried in the houses, with 
their bracelets, tobacco-bag, and other trinkets upon 
them : they are buried the same day they die, the pa- 
rents and relations keeping up a continual mourning and 
lamentation over the body, from the death to the time 
of interment ; a few days afterwards, a great quantity of 
caxiri is made, and all friends and relatives invited to 
attend, to mourn for the dead, and to dance, sing, and 
cry to his memory. Some of the large houses have more 
than a hundred graves in them, but when the houses are 
small, and very full, the graves are made outside. 
The Tarianas and Tucanos, and some other tribes, 
about a month after the funeral, disinter the corpse, 
which is then much decomposed, and put it in a great 
pan, or oven, over the fire, till all the volatile parts are 
driven off with a most horrible odour, leaving only a 
black carbonaceous mass, which is pounded into a fine 
powder, and mixed in several large couches (vats made 
of hollowed trees) of caxiri : this is drunk by the as- 
sembled company till all is finished ; they believe that 
thus the virtues of the deceased will be transmitted to 
the drinkers. 
The Cobeus alone, in the Uaupes, are real cannibals : 
they eat those of other tribes, whom they kill in battle. 
