OF THE AMAZON. 
499 
and even make war for the express purpose of procuring 
human flesh for food. When they have more than they 
can consume at once, they smoke-dry the flesh over the 
fire, and preserve it for food a long time. They burn their 
dead, and drink the ashes in caxiri, in the same manner 
as described above. 
Every tribe and every malocca’' (as their houses are 
called) has its chief, or “ Tushaua,'*’ who has a limited 
authority over them, principally in war, in making fes- 
tivals, and in repairing the malocca and keeping the 
village clean, and in planting the mandiocca-fields ; he 
also treats with the traders, and supplies them with men 
to pursue their journeys. The succession of these chiefs 
is strictly hereditary in the male line, or through the 
female to her husband, who may be a stranger : their 
regular hereditary chief is never superseded, however 
stupid, dull, or cowardly he may be. They have very 
little law of any kind ; but what they have is of strict 
retaliation, — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ; 
and a murder is punished or revenged in the same 
manner and by the same weapon with which it was 
committed. 
They have numerous “ Pages,” a kind of priests, an- 
swering to the ''medicine-men” of the North American 
Indians. These are believed to have great power : they 
cure all diseases by charms, applied by strong blowing 
and breathing upon the party to be cured, and by the 
singing of certain songs and incantations. They are also 
believed to have power to kill enemies, to bring or send 
away rain, to destroy dogs or game, to make the fish 
leave a river, and to afflict with various diseases. They 
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