THE GREATEST INSULT 
inflicted a deep scratch upon his arm. This was considered 
by the Bororos the greatest insult a man could offer. 
Women, as in most other countries, quarrelled more 
than men. Not unlike their Western sisters, they always, 
under such circumstances, yelled at the top of their voices, 
and then resorted to the effective and universal scratching 
process with their long, sharp nails. 
It will be judged from this that it will not quite do to 
put down the Bororos as being as tame as lambs. Indeed, 
at the first look at their faces one is at once struck 
by the cruel expression upon them. They prided them¬ 
selves greatly on having killed members of rival tribes, 
and more still upon doing away with Brazilians. In the 
latter case it was pardonable, because until quite recently 
the Brazilians have slaughtered the poor Indians of the 
near interior regions in a merciless way. Now, on the 
contrary, the Brazilian Government goes perhaps too far 
the other way in its endeavour to protect the few Indians 
who still remain within the Republic. 
The more accessible tribes, such as the insignificant 
ones on the Araguaya, were having a good time, valuable 
presents of clothes they did not want, phonographs, sew¬ 
ing machines, fashionable hats, patent leather shoes, auto¬ 
matic pistols and rifles being showered upon them by 
expensive expeditions specially sent out to them. It no 
doubt pleased an enthusiastic section of the Brazilian 
public to see a photograph of cannibal Indians before they 
met the expedition, without a stitch of clothing upon their 
backs — or fronts, to be accurate — and by its side another 
photograph taken half an hour later and labelled “ In¬ 
dians civilized and honoured citizens of the Republic/’ in 
which you saw the same Indians, five or six, all dressed 
up and, it may be added, looking perfectly miserable, in 
clothes of the latest fashion. It would have been interest¬ 
ing to have taken a third photograph an hour after the 
second picture had been taken, in order to show how soon 
199 
