THE SECOND PART
PART TWO
This electronic edition scanned and edited by http://www.jrbooksonline.com
[NOTE: A German
mile at the time equaled about 4 English miles -- this per Letts'
Note 8; see Part I]
A TRUE and Brief Account of all that I learnt
concerning the trade and manners of the Tuppin Inbas, whose captive I was. These savages live in
CHAPTER I
The manner of the voyage from
CHAPTER II
The situation of the land called America or Brazil, of which I have seen a Part.
CHAPTER III
Concerning a great range of mountains which is in the Country. {64}
THERE is a range of mountains which reaches to within three miles of the sea, more or less, and begins to rise in the neighbourhood of Boiga de Todolos Sanctus, {65} which was built by the Portuguese who inhabit there. This range of mountains runs beside the sea for about 204 miles, in latitude twenty-nine degrees south of the equinoctial line, and is in places eight miles from the sea-ports. The land on both sides is similar. Many beautiful rivers flow from these mountains, and there is an abundance of wild life in the heights. A nation of savages lives on the mountains called Wayganna, and these savages have no fixed dwellings like the other nations living on either side of the mountains. The Waygannass wage war against the others, and when they capture them they eat them. This practice is also followed by their enemies. The Wayganna are great hunters in the mountains and are very skilful in shooting game with their bows, and have much cunning in the use of slings and traps, wherewith to take the animals. There is an abundance of wild honey in the mountains, which they eat, and they learn the cries of the beasts and the notes of the birds in order to track and shoot them. They make fire like the other savages with two pieces of wood, and roast their meat before eating. They carry their wives and children about with them.
When they set up their camps close to the enemy's country, they surround the huts with hedges, so that they cannot be surprised, and to protect themselves also against wild beasts. They surround the camp with sharp thorns, called Maraga eibe Ju, just as with us one lays down foot-hooks, and this they do for fear of their enemies. All night long they burn their fires, but they extinguish them by day, so that none may see the smoke and track them.
They wear their hair long, and allow their fingernails to grow to a great length. They have rattles called Maraka {67} like the other savages, which they look upon as their gods, and they have their own dances and drinking ceremonies. They use the teeth of wild beasts as knives and chop with stone wedges, as did also the other savages before they commenced to trade with the ships.
They make constant war upon their enemies, and when they want to capture them they hide behind the dry wood near to the huts, so that when anyone comes to take wood they can fall upon him.
They treat their enemies with great cruelty and receive the same treatment when they are captured. For example, such is their hate that they often cut off an arm or a leg from a living prisoner. {68} Others they kill, before they cut them up for eating.
CHAPTER IV
Concerning the dwellings of the Tuppin Inba, whose prisoner I was.
THESE people have their dwellings close by the sea, in front of the range of mountains of which I have spoken. Their dwellings extend also some sixty miles inland behind the mountains, and a river flows down from the hills to the sea, on the banks of which they also have a settlement called Paraeibe. They have settlements as well for some twenty-eight miles along the sea shore, and on all sides they are encompassed by their enemies. To the north they are bounded by a nation of savages called Weittaka {69} who are their enemies. On the south are the Tuppin Ikin. On the land side their enemies are called Karaya, while the Wayganna inhabit the mountains, and between these two are the savages called Markaya. These tribes harass them greatly and make war also among themselves, and when they capture one of the others they eat him.
They prefer to set up their dwellings in places where they have wood, water, and game and fish close at hand. When they have exhausted one place they move to another, and their manner of settling is this. A chief among them collects a party of forty men and women, as many as he can get, and these are usually friends and relations. They set up their huts, {70} which are about fourteen feet wide and quite 150 feet long, according to the number of those who are to inhabit them. These huts are about twelve feet (2 fathoms) high and are round at the top and vaulted like a cellar.
They roof them closely with the branches of palms to keep out the rain. Inside, the huts are all one: no one has a separate chamber to himself. Each couple, man and wife, has a space in the hut on one side, the space measuring about twelve feet, and on the other side lives another couple, and so the hut is filled, each couple having its own fire. The chief of the huts has his dwelling in the centre. The huts have generally three doors, one at each end, and the other in the middle, and the doors are so low that the people have to stoop to get in or out. Few of the villages have more than seven huts. Between the huts is a space where they knock their prisoners on the head.
The savages fortify their huts as follows. They make a stockade of palm trees, which they first split and then set up to a height of about nine feet (1½ fathoms). This they build so thickly that no arrow can pierce it, but they leave little holes here and there through which they can shoot. Outside this stockade they build another of high stakes, which they set up close together, but so that the space between them is not sufficient for a man to creep through. Among certain of the savages it is the custom to set up the heads of the men they have eaten on the stockade at the entrance to the huts.
CHAPTER V
In what manner they make fire.
THE savages have a kind of wood called Urakueiba which they dry. They then take two sticks of this wood, about the thickness of a finger, which they rub together. This produces a dust, and the friction from rubbing sets the dust alight. This is their manner of making fire, as is shown in the picture.
CHAPTER VI
Of their manner
of sleeping.
THEY sleep in things which are called in their language Inni. {71} They are made of cotton yarn, and they tie them to two poles above the ground, and at night they burn their fires beside them. They do not willingly go out of their huts at night for any reason without fire, so greatly are they in awe of their devil whom they call Ingange, and whom they often see.
CHAPTER
Of their skill
in shooting beasts and fish with arrows.
WHEREVER they go, whether in the forest or on the water, they are never without their bows and arrows. When in the forest they are perpetually watching, with eyes raised towards the trees, and when they hear the noise of birds, monkeys, or other animals in the trees they know well how to shoot them, following them unceasingly until they are successful. It seldom happens that a man returns empty-handed from hunting. In the same way they take the fish by the sea shore. They have keen sight, and as soon as a fish jumps they shoot and seldom miss. When they have hit the fish they jump into the water and swim after it. Some large fish, on feeling the arrow, sink to the bottom,
but the savages will dive to a depth of well-nigh six fathoms to get them. They use also small nets which they make out of long pointed leaves called Tockaun, and when they fish with nets several gather together, each man having his own station where the water is shallow, and they beat the water, driving the fish down into the nets. He who catches the greatest number divides his catch with his fellows.
It happens at times that those who live at a distance from the sea come down to catch fish which they bake until they are hard, after which they pound them into a kind of meal. This meal when dried lasts a long time, and they carry it back with them to their homes and eat it with roots. Otherwise, if they took the baked fish home, it would not keep for long, since they do not salt it. Also the meal goes further than the fish if baked whole.
CHAPTER VIII
Of the
appearance of the people.
THE savages are a fine race and handsome in face and general appearance, both men and women. They resemble our own people at home, except that they are brown from the sun. They go naked, both young and old, having nothing whatever to cover their shame, and they disguise themselves by painting. They wear no beards, but pluck out the hair by the roots as soon as it grows. They bore holes in the mouth and ears, in which they hang stones. This is their ornament, but they bedeck themselves also with feathers.
CHAPTER IX
How they cut and hew without axes,
knives and scissors.
BEFORE the ships began to arrive the savages had (and they have even now in many places where the ships do not come) a certain bluish-black stone shaped like a wedge, which they sharpen at its broadest end. These cones are about a span long, two fingers thick, and as broad as a hand, but some are larger and some smaller. They then take a thin reed and bend it round the stone, binding it with bast. The iron wedges which the Christians give them in certain places have the same shape, but now the savages make the handles differently. They bore a hole, in which they fix the wedge, and this is their axe with which they hew.
They use also the teeth of wild pigs and whet them in the centre to make them sharp, after which they bind them between two sticks. With these they shape their bows and arrows, making them as round as if they had been turned. They use also the teeth of an animal called Pacca, {72} which they sharpen, and when they have infirmities arising from the blood they scratch themselves until the blood comes, and thus they bleed themselves.
CHAPTER X
Concerning their bread and the names of their fruit; how they plant them and prepare them to be eaten.
IN the places where they intend to plant, they cut down the trees and leave them to dry for one or three months and then set fire to them and burn them. Afterwards they plant the roots between the trunks, from which the roots take sustenance. This root is called mandioca and is a small tree about a fathom high, giving out three kinds of roots. When they desire to eat the roots they pull up the tree and break off the roots; then they take a branch from the tree and re-plant it. This in due time throws out roots, and in six months it is big enough to be used for food.
They use the roots in three ways. First they rub them against a stone {73} and reduce them to small crumbs, after which they press out the juice with a thing made of palm branches, called Tippiti. When the crumbs are dry they pass them through a sieve and make them into thin cakes. The utensil in which they dry the meal and bake it is made of burnt clay, shaped like a large dish. They also take the fresh roots and soak them in water until they are rotten after which they place them over the fire and smoke them until they are dry. This
dried root they call Keinrima, and they preserve it for a long time. When they want to use it they pound it in a mortar made of wood, so that it becomes white like white meal, and from it they make cakes called Byyw. Again, they take the rotten mandioca before it is dried and mix it with the dry and the green roots. From this they make a dry meal which can be kept for a year or eaten at once. This meal they call Vy-than.
They make also meal from fish and meat in this manner. They roast the flesh or fish in the smoke over the fire until it becomes quite dry. Then they pull it to pieces and dry it again over the fire in pots called Yneppaun. After this they pound it small in a wooden mortar and press it through a sieve, reducing it to powder. This keeps for a long time, for they do not salt their fish or meat. This meal they eat with the root-meal, and it is quite pleasant to the taste.
CHAPTER XI
How they prepare their food.
THERE are many tribes of savages who eat no salt. {74} Some of those among whom I was a prisoner ate salt, which they had seen in use among the Frenchmen who traded with them. But they told me of a nation called Karaya, whose country adjoins their own, lying inland from the sea, who make salt from palm trees and eat it, but those who partook of it to excess did not live long. They prepare the salt as follows, for I saw and helped them to do it. They cut down a thick palm tree and split it up into small pieces. Then they make a stand of dried wood upon which they lay the pieces and burn them to ashes. From the ashes they make a solution which they boil until the salt is separated. I thought at first it must be saltpetre, and I tried it in the fire, but it was not. It tasted like salt and was grey in colour. But the majority of the savages eat no salt.
When they boil anything, whether fish or flesh, they generally put green pepper with it, and when it is well cooked they take it out of the broth and make of it a thin mixture which they call Mingau, and they drink it out of gourds which they use for vessels. Further, when they cook food, whether fish or flesh, which is to last for some time, they lay it four spans above the fire upon wooden rests, and making a good fire beneath, they let it roast and smoke until it becomes quite dry. When they want to eat it they boil it up again and eat it, and this food they call Mockaein.
CHAPTER XII
Concerning their
government by chiefs, and their laws.
THE savages have no special form of government or law. Each hut has its chief or king, and all their chiefs belong to one family with one common authority and control. Beyond this a man can do what he will. It may happen that one by experience in war has more authority than another, and when they make war, greater respect is shown to him, as in the case of Konyan Bebe whom I have mentioned. Otherwise I have seen no particular authority among them except that by custom the young defer to their elders.
If a man slay or shoot another his friends are ready to take vengeance and to kill the slayer, but this happens seldom. They obey the orders of the chief of the hut: this they do without compulsion or fear, but of their own free will.
CHAPTER XIII
How they bake the pots and vessels
which they use.
THE women make the pots which they use, as follows. They take clay and make mud, out of which they shape the pots they wish to make. Then they leave them to dry for a time and are skilled in painting them. When they bake the pots they lay them on stones, placing a quantity of dried bark about them which they light, and the pots become so hot that they glow like hot iron.
CHAPTER XIV
How they concoct their drinks and make themselves drunk therewith, and the manner of their drinking.
THE women prepare the drinks. {75} They take the mandioca root and boil it in great pots. Afterwards they pour it into other vessels and allow it to cool a little. Then young girls sit round and chew the boiled root in their mouths, and what is chewed they set apart in a special vessel. When the boiled root is all chewed, they place it back again in the pot which they fill with water, mixing the water with the chewed root, after which they heat it again.
They have special pots, half buried in the ground, which they make use of much as we use casks for wine or beer. They pour the liquid into these and close them, and the liquor ferments of itself and becomes strong. After two days they drink it until they are drunken. It is thick, but pleasant to the taste.
Each hut prepares its own drink, and when the whole village desires to make merry, which happens generally about once a month, they go first of all together into one hut and drink there until the drink is finished. Then they go the round of the other huts, drinking until they have drunk their fill and there is nothing left.
When they drink they gather round the pots and sit, some on the fire-sticks, others on the ground. The drink is served by the women in a very orderly manner. The drinkers sing and dance round the pots, and on the spot where they drink they pass their water.
The drinking lasts all night, the merry-makers continuing to dance between the fires, with shouting and blowing of trumpets, and when they are drunken the noise is terrible; but they quarrel little. They are also generously disposed, and when a man has more food than his fellow he shares it with him. {76}
CHAPTER XV
Of the manner in which the men adorn and paint themselves, and of their names.
THE men have a bare space on the head with a circle of hair round it like a monk. I asked them frequently from what they took this fashion, and they told me that their forefathers had seen it on a man called Meire Humane, who had worked many miracles among them, and this man is supposed to have been a prophet or one of the Apostles. {77}
I asked them further how they contrived to cut the hair before the ships brought them scissors, and they told me that they used a stone wedge with another instrument underneath and so cut off the hair. The bare space in the middle they make with a scraper of transparent stone which they use frequently for shearing. They have also a thing made of red feathers called Kannittare, which they bind round the head.
They have a large hole in the lower lip which they make when they are young. They take the children and prick the hole with a sharpened deer's horn. In this they insert a small piece of stone or wood and anoint it with salve, and the hole remains open. Then when the children are fully grown and fit to bear arms they enlarge the hole and insert in it a large green stone. {78} This stone is shaped so that the smaller end is inside the lip and the larger end outside. The result is that their lips hang down with the weight of the stones. They have also at both sides of the mouth, and in either cheek, other small stones. Some of these are of crystal and are narrow and long. They wear also ornaments made from large snail-shells called Mattepue. These ornaments are shaped like a half-moon, and they hang them round the neck. They are snow-white and are called Bogesso.
Others make white necklaces of shells which they also hang round the neck. These are about the thickness of a reed and are very difficult to make. {79} They paint themselves black and decorate themselves also with plumes of red and white feathers which look very gay when mixed together. {80} They stick them also to their bodies with a substance taken from the trees. They smear themselves with this substance when they wish to feather themselves, and the feathers adhere to it. They paint also one arm black and the other red, and adorn the legs and body in the same manner.
They make also an ornament of ostrich plumes which takes the form of a large round ball to which feathers are attached. They tie this to their buttocks when they set out to war or make merry. It is called Enduap.
They call themselves by the names of wild animals and have indeed many names, with this distinction, however. When they are born they are given one name. This they retain until they are fit to bear arms and able to slay their enemies, and as many as they kill so many names they have.
CHAPTER XVI
Concerning the
adornment of the women.
THE women paint their faces beneath the eyes and also the whole body in the same manner as the men. But they allow their hair to grow long like other women. They have no special adornment, but they have holes in the ears from which they hang ornaments about a span long. These are round and about as thick as a thumb, and they call them in their tongue Nambibeya. They make them also from shells called Mattepue.
Their names are taken from birds, fishes and fruit. From youth up they have one name only, but for every slave killed by the men another name is given to the women. When they pick their lice they eat them. I asked them frequently why they did this, and they told me it was because the lice were their enemies who ate up their heads, and thus they took vengeance. {81}
There are no special midwives among them. When a woman is in labour the nearest person, whether man or woman, runs to help her. I have seen the women going about on the fourth day after birth.
They carry their children on their backs in cradles made of cotton yarn, and while the mothers work the children sleep and are content, however much the women stoop and move with them.
CHAPTER XVII
How they first name a child.
CHAPTER XVIII
How many wives a man has, and his manner of dealing with them.
MOST of the savages have one wife only, but some have more, and certain of the kings have thirteen or fourteen wives. The king to whom I was finally presented and from whom the Frenchmen bought me (he was named Abbati Bossange) had many wives, and his first wife had authority over the others. Each wife had her separate lodging in the huts, her own fire and root plantation, and that one with whom he cohabited for the time being gave him his food, and thus he went the round of them. As for the children, the boys when they grow up go hunting, and that which any one of them brings back he gives to his own mother who cooks it and divides it among the others, and the women agree well together. The savages have the custom for a man to give away a wife when he is tired of her, and they make presents also of their daughters and sisters.
CHAPTER XIX
Of their
betrothals.
THEY betroth their daughters at an early age, and when they are grown up to womanhood, they cut off the hair from their heads and scratch peculiar marks on their backs, tying at the same time the teeth of wild beasts round their necks. The hair grows again, but the cut is treated with a substance so that it remains black, and this is held to be a great honour.
After these ceremonies they deliver the girls to those to whom they are betrothed, but without any further ceremony. The men and women behave themselves decently and do their business secretly.
Item, I have seen one of the chiefs go through all the huts at early morning, scratching the children's legs with a sharpened fish's tooth in order to frighten them, so that when they are unruly the parents can tell them that the chief will come again and so restrain them.
CHAPTER XX
Of their
possessions.
THERE is no community of goods among them and they know nothing of money. Their treasures are the feathers of birds. He that has many feathers is rich, and he that has a stone in his lip is also counted among the rich.
Each couple has a particular plantation of roots which supplies both man and wife with food.
CHAPTER XXI
What is their greatest honour.
THEIR greatest honour is to capture their enemies and to slay them; for such is their custom. And for every foe a man kills he takes a new name. The most famous among them is he that has the most names.
CHAPTER XXII
Of their beliefs.
THEY put their faith in a thing shaped like a pumpkin, the size of a pint pot. It is hollow within, and they put a stick through it and cut a hole in it like a mouth, filling it with small stones so that it rattles. They shake it about when they sing and dance, and call it Tammaraka, and each man has one of his own. It is shaped like this.
There are certain wise ones among them called Paygi, who are looked up to as soothsayers are with us. These men travel every year throughout the whole country, visiting all the huts and saying that a spirit has been with them from afar off, and that this spirit has endued them with power to cause all the rattling Tammaraka chosen by them to speak and grow so powerful that they can grant whatever is required of them. Then each man desires that his Tammaraka should have this virtue, and a great feast is prepared, with drinking, singing and prophesying, and many other strange ceremonies. The wise men then ordain a day, and fix upon one of the huts which they cause to be cleared, no woman or child being suffered to remain there, and they direct that each man shall paint his Tammaraka red and decorate it with feathers, and come to the place so that this power of speech may be conferred upon them. After this they all go to the hut, and the wise men sit down at the upper end, each one having his own Tammaraka on the ground before him. The others place theirs also there, and each one offers a present to the wise men, such as arrows, feathers, and ornaments for the ears, so that his particular Tammaraka shall not be overlooked. When all are gathered together, one of the wise men takes each Tammaraka separately and fumigates it with a herb called Bittin. Then he seizes the rattle by the mouth shaking it and saying: Nee kora;‑-" Now speak and let us hear you: are you within?" Then he speaks a word or two softly so that one cannot know whether it is he that speaks or the rattle; but the people imagine that the rattle is speaking. Nevertheless, it is the wise man that speaks, and so he does with all the rattles one after the other. {82} Each one then thinks that great virtue has entered into his rattle, and the wise men command them to make war and take many enemies, since the spirit in the Tammaraka craves for the flesh of prisoners, and so the people set off to war.
After the Paygi (or wise men) have changed the rattles into gods, each man takes his rattle away, calling it his beloved son, and building a hut apart in which to place it, setting food before it and praying to it for what he desires, just as we pray to the true God. These rattles are their gods, for they know nothing of the true God, the maker of heaven and earth, believing that the earth and the heavens have existed from the beginning of time. Beyond this they know nothing of the creation of the world.
They say that once upon a time there was a great flood which drowned all their ancestors, save those that escaped in canoes or on to the tops of high trees. This I imagine must have been the Deluge.
When I first came into their hands, and they told me about the rattles, I thought there must be a devil's spirit in them, for they said that they spoke often. But when I went to the huts where the wise men sat to make the rattles speak, and saw their tricks, and that everyone had to sit down apart, I went away marvelling at the simplicity of the people and the ease with which they were beguiled.
CHAPTER XXIII
How they turn the women into
soothsayers.
THEY go first to a hut and take all the women, one after another, and fumigate them. After this the women have to jump and yell and run about until they become so exhausted that they fall down as if they were dead. Then the soothsayer says: "See now, she is dead; but I will bring her to life again." After the woman has come to herself they say that she is able to foretell future things, and when the men go out to war the women have to prophesy concerning it.
At one time the wife of the king to whom I had been presented to be killed began to prophesy and told her husband that a spirit had come to her from far away enquiring concerning me, when I was to be killed, and as to the club with which I was to be knocked on the head, and where it was. The king replied that it would not be long and that all was prepared, only he was afraid I was not a Portuguese, but a Frenchman. Afterwards I asked the woman why she desired my death, seeing that I was no enemy, and whether she was not afraid that my God would punish her? She replied that I must not be troubled since they were only strange spirits seeking news of me. They have many ceremonies of this nature.
CHAPTER XXIV
Concerning their
canoes. {83}
THEY have a kind of tree in the country called Yga Ywera, the bark of which they remove from the top to the bottom, building a platform round the tree so that they can remove the bark in one piece. After this they take the bark and carry it from the mountains to the sea and heat it at the fire, bending it upwards, before and behind, but first lashing it together with wood so that it does not stretch. In this manner they make their canoes, in which thirty men can go to war. The bark is about the thickness of a thumb, quite four feet across, and forty feet long, some being longer and some shorter. They paddle very quickly and travel as far as they will. When the sea is rough they beach the canoe until the weather improves. They do not adventure more than two miles from the land, but they travel long distances along the coast.
CHAPTER XXV
Why one enemy eats another.
THIS they do, not from hunger, but from great hate and jealousy, and when they are fighting with each other one, filled with hate, will call out to his opponent: Dete Immeraya, Schermiuramme, heiwoe:--"Cursed be you my meat": De kange Jueve eypota kurine:--"To-day will I cut off your head": Sche Innamme pepicke Reseagu:--"Now am I come to take vengeance on you for the death of my friends": Yande soo, sche mocken Sera Quora Ossorime Rire etc.:--"This day before sunset your flesh shall be my roast meat." All this they do from their great hatred.
CHAPTER XXVI
Of their plan of campaign when they set out to invade their enemy's country.
WHEN they desire to make war in an enemy's country the chiefs gather together and take counsel how best to achieve their purpose, all which they make known in the huts, so that the men may arm themselves. They name the time of the ripening of a certain fruit as the date of their departure, for they have not the art to reckon by the day or year. They also fix their expeditions by the time of the spawning of a fish called Pratti, in their tongue, and the spawning time they call Pirakaen. Then they equip themselves with canoes and arrows, and lay in stores of dried root-meal called Vy-than. After this they enquire of the Pagy, their wise men, whether they shall return victorious. These will say "Yes," but will warn the enquirers to note well their dreams when they dream of their foes.
If many dream that they are roasting their enemy's flesh that signifies victory. But if it is their own flesh which they see in the pot, that is an evil omen and they had better stay at home. If their dreams are propitious they arm themselves and prepare much drink in the huts after which they dance and drink with their idols, the Tammaraka, each one beseeching his idol to assist him in catching an enemy. Then they set out, and when they draw near to the enemy's country, on the night before the attack, the chiefs once more direct their men to remember their dreams.
I accompanied them in one of their expeditions and on the night before they intended to attack, when we were close to the enemy's country, the chief went up and down in the camp, telling the men to note well their dreams that night, and ordering the young men to set off at daybreak to hunt for game and catch fish, which was done, and the food was cooked. Then the chief summoned the other chiefs to his hut and when they were all seated upon the ground in a circle he gave them to eat, after which they all told their dreams, that is, such dreams as were favourable, and then they danced and made merry with the Tammaraka. They spy out the enemy's huts at night and attack at dawn. If they take a prisoner who is badly wounded they kill him at once and carry home the meat roasted. Those that are unwounded they take back alive and kill them in the huts. They attack with loud yells, stamping on the ground, and blowing blasts upon trumpets made of gourds. They all carry cords bound about their bodies to make fast their prisoners, and adorn themselves with red feathers so that they may distinguish their friends from their foes. They shoot very rapidly and send fire-arrows into the enemy's huts to set them alight. And if they are wounded they have their special herbs with them to heal their wounds.
CHAPTER XXVII
Concerning their
weapons.
THEY use bows, and the points of their arrows are made of bone, {84} which they sharpen and bind to the arrows. They fashion them also of the teeth of a fish which they call Tiberaun and catch in the sea. Also they take cotton, and mixing it with wax, they bind it to the arrow and set fire to it. These are their fire-arrows. They use also shields made of bark, and others of the skin of wild beasts, and they set sharpened thorns in the ground, which they use like our foot-traps.
I heard also, but did not see, that when they choose they can drive their enemies from their strongholds by means of the pepper which grows there. They make great fires when the wind is blowing, and throw the pepper into the flames, and they say that when the smoke strikes the huts, the inmates have to evacuate them, which I can well believe. For I was once with the Portuguese in a province called Brannenbucke (Pernambuco), as I have related. We were stranded with our ship in the shallows of a river where the tide had left us, and a company of savages came up, intending to capture us, but they could not do so. Whereupon they threw down heaps of wood between us and the boat, and tried to drive us out with the pepper fumes, but they could not ignite the wood.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Of their manner of killing and eating their enemies. Of the instrument with which they kill them, and the rites which follow. {85}
WHEN they first bring home a captive the women and children set upon him and beat him. Then they decorate him with grey feathers and shave off his eyebrows, and dance around him, having first bound him securely so that he cannot escape. They give him a woman who attends to him and has intercourse with him. If the woman conceives, the child is maintained until it is fully grown. Then, when the mood seizes them, they kill and eat it.
They feed the prisoner well and keep him for a
time while they prepare the pots which are to contain their drink. They bake
also special pots in which to prepare the mixture wherewith they paint him, and
they make tassels to tie to the club with which he is to be killed, as well as
a long cord, called Mussurana, to bind him when the
time comes. When all is ready they fix the day of his death and invite the
savages from the neighbouring villages to be present.
The drinking vessels are filled a few days in advance, and
before the women make the drink, they bring forth the prisoner once or twice to the place where he is to die and dance round him.
When the guests have assembled, the chief of the huts bids them welcome and desires that they shall help them to eat their enemy. The day before they commence to drink, the cord Mussurana is tied about the victim's neck and on this day also they paint the club called Iwera Pemme with which they intend to kill him. This is of the shape depicted here.
It is about 6 feet (a fathom) long, and they cover it with a sticky mess, after which they take the eggs of a bird called Mackukawa, which they break up to powder and spread upon the club. Then a woman
sits down and scratches figures in the powder, while the other women dance and sing around her. When the club Iwera Pemme is ready decked with tassels and other things, they hang it in an empty hut upon a pole, and sing in front of it all night.
In the same manner they paint the face of the victim, the women singing while another woman paints, and when they begin to drink they take their captive with them and talk to him while he drinks with them. After the drinking bout is over they rest the next day and build a hut on the place of execution, in which the prisoner spends the night under close guard. Then, a good while before daybreak on the day following, they commence to dance and sing before the club, and so they continue until day breaks. After this they take the prisoner from his hut, which they break to pieces and clear away. Then they remove the Mussurana from the prisoner's neck, and tying it round his body they draw it tight on either side so that he stands there bound in the midst of them, while
numbers of them hold the two ends of the cord. So they leave him for a time, but they place stones beside him which he throws at the women, who run about mocking him and boasting that they will eat him. These women are painted, and are ready to take his four quarters when he is cut up, and run with them round the huts, a proceeding which causes great amusement to the others.
Then they make a fire about two paces from the prisoner which he has to tend. After this a woman brings the club Iwera Pemme, waving the tassels in the air, shrieking with joy, and running to and fro before the prisoner so that he may see it. Then a man takes the club and landing before the prisoner he shows it to him. Meanwhile he who is going to
do the deed withdraws with fourteen or fifteen others, and they all paint their bodies grey with ashes. Then the slayer returns with his companions, and the man who holds the club before the prisoner hands it to the slayer. At this stage the king of the huts approaches, and taking the club he thrusts it once between the slayer's legs which is a sign of great honour. Then the slayer seizes it and thus addresses the victim: "I am he that will kill you, since you and yours have slain and eaten many of my friends." To which the prisoner replies: "When I am dead I shall still have many to avenge my death." Then the slayer strikes from behind and beats out his brains.
The women seize the body at once and carry it to the fire where they scrape off the skin, making the flesh
quite white, and stopping up the fundament with a piece of wood so that nothing may be lost. Then a man cuts up the body, removing the legs above the knee and the arms at the trunk, whereupon the four women seize the four limbs and run with them round the huts, making a joyful cry. After this they divide the trunk among themselves, and devour everything that can be eaten. {86}
When this is finished they all depart, each one carrying a piece with him. The slayer takes a fresh name, and the king of the huts scratches him in the upper part of the arm with the tooth of a wild beast. When the wound is healed the scar remains visible, which is a great honour. He must lie all that day in his hammock, but they give him a small bow and an arrow, so that he can amuse himself by shooting into wax, lest his arm should become feeble from the shock
of the death-blow. I was present and have seen all this with my own eyes.
The savages have not the art of counting beyond five. If they have to count more they make use of their fingers and toes. Beyond that they point to four or five persons and reckon up the number of fingers and toes which they have between them.
CHAPTER XXIX
Concerning
certain animals in the country.
THERE are in the country deer like ours, and wild pigs of two kinds. One kind resembles the pigs in our country: the other, which is small like a young pig, is called Teygasu Dattu, {87} and is very difficult to catch in the traps which the savages use to snare wild beasts.
There are three kinds of monkeys. {88} One species is called Key, and is familiar to us at home. Another is called Ackakey. They are seen jumping about in great numbers on the trees and make a great noise in the forests. The third kind is called Pricki. These are red and bearded like a goat, and as big as a good-sized dog.
They have also a beast called Dattu, {89} about a span high and a span and a half long. It is armoured over the whole of its body, except on the belly, where it has no protection. This armour resembles horn and moves with joints like mail. The beast has a long pointed snout and a long tail. It inhabits stony places and lives on ants. Its flesh is fat, and I have often eaten of it.
CHAPTER XXX
[Certain
animals.]
THERE is another beast called Serwoy, {90} as big as a cat. Its hair is whitish-grey or dark grey, and it has a cat's tail. When it breeds it has a litter of about six young, more or less, and in its belly it has a pouch about half a span long in which is a second skin, for the belly is not open. In this pouch are the teats, and wherever it goes it carries its young in its pouch between the two skins. I have often helped to catch them, and have taken the young out of the pouch.
There are also many tigers in the country which kill the people and do much damage. {91} They have a kind of lion called leopard, which is to say grey lion, and many other strange beasts besides.
There is also an animal called Cativare, {92} which lives both on land and in water, and eats the reeds growing by the water's edge, and when these beasts are alarmed they dive to the bottom. They are bigger than sheep, having a head shaped like a hare, only larger, and they are short-eared. They have a short tail and fairly long legs. On the land they move quickly from one water to another. Their hair is blackish-grey and they have three balls on each foot. The flesh tales like pig's flesh.
There is also a kind of lizard which lives in the water, and another kind on the land. They are very good to eat.
CHAPTER XXXI
Concerning a small insect, like a flea, which the natives call Attun.
THERE is a small insect like a flea, but smaller, called Attun in the savage tongue. {93} It is bred in the huts from the uncleanliness of the people. These insects creep into the feet, causing a tickling sensation when they enter, but eating themselves into the flesh so that one scarcely feels them. If they are not observed and extracted at once they lay a batch of eggs as round as peas, and when these are extracted a small hole about the size of a pea remains in the flesh. I have seen, when I came first to the country with the Spaniards, that my companions frequently ruined their feet by neglecting these creatures.
CHAPTER XXXII
Concerning a kind of bat which at night bites the toes and foreheads of the people when they are asleep.
THERE is a kind of bat {94} in the country, bigger
than the bats in
When I was among the savages they often bit my toes, and when I awoke my toe was all bloody. But they attack the savages for the most part in the forehead.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Concerning the
bees of the country.
THERE are three kinds of bees {95} in the land. The first kind is exactly similar to our own. The second kind is black and as big as a fly. The third is as small as a gnat. They all store their honey in the trunks of trees, and I have gone frequently with the savages to gather it. In general, among all three species, we found the honey best among the smallest. They do not sting as severely as the bees with us. I have often seen them fly upon the savages when they were taking the honey, so that they were forced to brush them from their naked bodies. I have also taken the honey when I was naked, but the first time on account of the great pain I had to run to a stream and wash the bees off before I could get rid of them.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Concerning the birds of the country.
THERE are many strange birds in this country, particularly a kind called Uwara Pirange, {96} which seeks its food by the sea and nets in the rocks close to the shore. This bird is about the size of a hen, with a long beak and legs like a heron, but not so long. The feathers on the young birds are light grey. Later, when they are fledged, the feathers become dark grey. They fly about thus for a year, after which the plumage changes again and the whole bird becomes red, as red as paint, and so it remains. The savages set great fore by these feathers.
CHAPTER XXXV
An account of
certain trees in the country.
THERE are certain trees called by the savages Juni Papeeywa, {97} whereon grows a fruit not unlike an apple. The savages chew the fruit and press the juice into a vessel, and paint themselves with it. When it spreads on the skin it looks at first like water. Then, after a time, the skin becomes as black as ink, and so it remains until the ninth day when it disappears, but until then it cannot be removed, however much the skin is washed with water.
CHAPTER XXXVI
Concerning the growth of the cotton plant, and the Brazilian pepper plant, and of certain other roots which the savages plant for food.
THE cotton grows upon trees which are about six feet (a fathom) in height, having many branches, and as they blossom the bloom turns into balls. When these are about to ripen they open, and the wool is found in the balls, surrounding black kernels which are the seeds from which the trees are planted. The shrubs are full of these balls. {98}
The pepper is of two kinds, one yellow the other red, and the growth is in this manner. When green it is about the size of haws which grow on thorn bushes. The plant is small, about three feet (half a fathom) in height, with small leaves. It is full of pepper which burns the mouth. They gather the pepper when it is ripe and dry it in the sun.
There are roots also called Jettiki,
{99} which are excellent to the taste. When they plant them they cut off small
pieces and place them in the ground. These then take root and spread themselves
over the ground like hops, throwing off many additional roots.
THE CONCLUDING ADDRESS
Hans Staden
wishes the reader mercy and peace in God's name.
Some may say that if I had described all my trials and experiences I might have made a bigger book. That is true, for I could indeed have told much more. But that was not my intention. I have shown here and there what reasons led me to write this book. My mind is to show only how much we owe to God who is with us always to protect us from the day of our birth onwards.
I perceive also that the contents of my book will
seem strange to many. This cannot be helped. Nevertheless I was not the first,
nor shall I be the last, to undertake voyages and see strange lands and
peoples. Those who have had similar experiences will not laugh at my relation,
but will take it to heart. But that he who has been face to face with death
should have the same mind as those who stay at home and linen to what is told
them is not to be expected, and this everybody knows well. Moreover, if all who
sailed to
And this I know, indeed, that there are many honest men in Castile, Portugal and France, and some even in Antwerp, in Brabant, who having been in America, can testify that all that I have written is true. For the benefit of those to whom such matters are unknown I call upon these witnesses, but above all I call upon God.
My first journey to
My next voyage was from
The ship's crew who bought me from the savages
came from
When I left
At
If there is a young man among you, to whom this writing and these witnesses are still insufficient, then, lest he should live in doubt, let him, with God's help, undertake the voyage himself. I have given him information enough; let him follow my tracks, for the world is closed to none whom God assists.
Now to Almighty God, who is all in all, be praise, honour, and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
At
NOTES
63 In
64 Sir Richard
Burton writes that this is a fair description of the Eastern Ghauts of the
65 Now
66 These were the Guayana, a branch of the S. Tupis.
They occupied fifty leagues of coast from Angra dos
Reis to Cananéa, where they met the Carijós [R. B.].
67 On the Tammaraka see Pt. II, ch. xxii.
68 Not only did
they cut off the limbs of their living victims, but they roasted and devoured
them before their eyes. G. Friederici, Die Behandlung der Kriegsgefangenen durch die Indianer Amerikas. Festschrift für Eduard Seeler,
69 These were the Guaitacá who occupied the prairies between
70 Compare A
Treatise of Brazil, Purchas (reprint), XVI, p. 423: "These Indians doe
use certaine Cottages or houses of timber, covered
with Palme tree leaves, and are in length, some of two hundred and three
hundred spans, and they have two or three doores verie little and low. . . . There be houses that have fiftie, sixtie, or seventie roomes of twentie or five and twentie
quarters long, and as manie in breadth. In this house
dwelleth one principall man
or more, whom all the ref doe obey, and ordinarily they are kinsmen. In every roome of these dwelleth a
household with their children and family without any repartition betweene the one and the other, and to enter in one of
these houses is to enter into a laberinth, for every roome hath his fire, and their nets hanging, and their stuffe, so that comming in, all
that they have is in sight, and some house hath two hundred persons and
more." The object secured by the lowness was coolness in hot weather, heat
in cold seasons, and freedom from flies and other such pests.
71 On the hammocks
see note 43. [43 Peter Carder, who dwelt
among the Tupi Indians for some months between 1578
and 1586, writes of the hammocks: "They hanged up their Beds tying them
fast to a couple of Trees, being a kinde of white
Cotton Netting, which hanged two foot from the ground, and kindled fire of two
sticks which they made on both sides of their Beds, for warmth, and for driving
away of wilde beasts." Purchas (reprint), XVI,
p. 139. See below Pt. II, ch. vi.]
72 "The Pacai are like Pigs, there are
great abundance of them; the flesh is pleasant, but it is heavie."
Purchas (reprint), XVI, p. 451.
73 An illustration
of a board set with stone chips for grating the manioc roots is given in
74 There is an
interesting account of the use of salt by the natives in G. Friederici,
Der Charakter der Entdeckung and Eroberung Amerikas.
75 Intoxicating
drinks made from palms, manioc roots, maize, bananas, etc., were in use long
before the Europeans arrived. The writer of the Treatise of Brazil, Purchas
(reprint), XVI, p. 435, says: "when they begin to drinke
it is a Labyrinth or a Hell to see and heare
them." Compare Peter Carder's account at p. 141: "they take the
liquor and put it into broad mouth Jarres of earth,
and of this both their men and women doe drinke at
their feasts till they be as drunke
as Apes." See also Sir Richard Hawkins' Voyage into the South Sea, Purchas
(reprint), XVII, pp. 100 ff: An illustration of a pottery vase for
holding cassava-beer is given in
76 The writer of
the Treatise of Brazil in Purchas (reprint), XVI, p. 421, refers to the
liberality of the natives: "they eate all that
they have and devide it among their friends, in sort
that of one fish that they have they divide it to all, and they hold for a
great honour and gallantrie
to be liberall, and thereby they get great fame and honour."
77 This is an
interesting reference to the story of
78 Illustrations
of these lipstones, curiously similar to Hans Staden's woodcut at p. 143, are given in R. N. Wegner's Begleitschrift to Hans Staden,
Faksimile-Wiedergabe, Frankfurt-a.-M., 1927, p.
34. See also
79 The king Konyan Bebe wore such a necklace
when he received Hans Staden. See ch.
xxviii.
80 A magnificent
specimen of a mantle of feathers from the
81 The Indians
took vengeance on stone or wood which might injure them by chance, and ate not
only their own lice and vermin by way of revenge, but also the lice from the
bodies of their prisoners. G. Friederici, Die Behandlung der Kriegsgefangenen durch die
1ndianer Amerikas, in Festschrift für Eduard Seeler,
82 Apparently
there was at times an even more solemn ceremony which Hans Staden
did not witness. When de Léry and two other Frenchmen
came to a town of the Tupinambá, the men had retired
to a hut and were singing and yelling and jumping about until they fell
senseless to the ground, foaming at the mouth. Then after a while they began to
sing in the sweetest and most delightful tones. De Léry
and his companions, at considerable risk, witnessed the ceremony through a hole
in the roof of the hut. Southey, History of Brazil, I,
p. 203; de Léry, Histoire d'un Voyage, ch. xv. On the power of the medicine-men among the
Indians of Brazil see Frazer's Golden Bough, The Magic Art, I, p. 358.
83 On the native
canoes see G. Friederici, Die Schiffahrt
der Indianer.
84 Compare A Treatise of
85 There is a long
and gruesome description of a cannibalistic feast in Purchas (reprint), XVI, pp. 431 ff. Compare pp. 140 and 247. There is not
much difference between the two accounts, but the writer in Purchas gives a
variation of what he calls the "butchery rites." Speaking of the
slaying he says: "the one makes him readie to
discharge, and the other to avoid his bodie, which is
all the honour of his death. And they are so nimble
in this that many times it is high daies before they
are able to kill them, for when he sees the weapon in the aire,
sometimes hee drawes his
head aside, sometimes lice declines his bodie, and in
this they are so doughtie that if those that hold the
points of the coards doe gird him hard (as they doe
when the slaughterer is slow or weake) hee puts so hard that hee brings
them to him, and makes them to slacken in despight,
having one eie on them, another on the Sword, without
any standing still." The account concludes: "hee
striketh till hee hitteth and that is enough, for assoone
as he is downe he giveth
him so many blowes till he batters his head (though
one man was seene that had it so hard that they could
never breake it, for as they goe
bare-head, they have them so hard that ours in comparison of theirs are like a Pompion, and when they will injurie
any White man, they call him soft-head)." There is an illustration of a
fine club such as is described in the text from the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin, in Hans Staden,
Faksimile-Wiedergabe, Frankfurt-a.-M., 1927, p.
33. François Pyrard of
86
I have suppressed a few details.
The text is as follows: "darnach schneiden sie im
den rücke mit dem hinderfen von dem vortheyl ab,
dasselbige theylen sie dann unter
sich, aber das ingeweyd behalten die weiber, sieden, und in der brüe machen
sie eynen brei, mingau genannt,
den drincken sie und die
kinder, das ingeweyd essen sie, essen auch
das fleysch umb das haupt her, das hirn in dem heubt, die zungen, unnd wass
[sic; weß –JR, ed.] sie sunst
daran geniessen können essen die jungen."
[Scanner's (JR)
addendum – This original passage is translated by Carlos W. Porter as follows:
"After that they cut into the back, separating the hindmost part from the
front, and distribute the same amongst themselves, but the intestines are given
to the women. They boil it and make a porridge out of
the broth, called "mingau". Then they drink
it, and the children eat the intestines and also eat the flesh and skin and
head, the brain in the head, and the tongue; the boys eat whatever else they
can enjoy."]
87 This
"wart-hog" or "hog with navel on the back," as old travellers call it, is the small porcupine-quilled Dicotyles Torquatus, of white colour
turning to grey and silver, on a black base, without tail, very fierce and fond
of biting and hard to tame [R. B.].
88 The early
discoverers were greatly interested in monkeys, and their accounts are full of
stories about them. See G. Friederici in Archiv für Anthropologie,
N. F., Bd.
89 This is, of
course, the armadillo.
90 The opossum was
seen first by the younger Pinzon. See for various descriptions G. Friederici, Der Charakter der Entdeckung
Amerikas, quoted in the
preceding note, p. 25, note 5.
91 This creature
must be the ounce, called by the Spaniards Tigre or Tigre real, and by the
Portuguese Onça vermelha, Onça pintada. It was a great
eater of men's flesh, and is said to have devastated whole districts. Friederici, op. cit., p. 137. The other
animal was probably the puma. Friederici, p. 139.
92 The well-known Cavia Capybara Linn., a water-hog whose name is derived
from Capim, grass, and G-uara,
an eater. See R. F. Burton, Highlands of Brazil, I, p. 3.
93
The nigua, or "jigger" (Pulex
penetrans).
There is a description in the Voyage of Ulrich Schmidt (Schmidel), Hakluyt Society, No. LXXXI (1891), p. 74.
François Pyrard of Laval says that he had seen people
lose their feet by these pests, and that he was himself afflicted by them and
carried the marks on his legs long afterwards. Voyage, Hakluyt Society,
1890, Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 319. Staden does not
mention mosquitos and midges, but there are some
harrowing accounts in the letters of the early missionary Fathers of the sufferings
caused by them. See G. Friederici, Der Charakter der Entdeckung and Eroberung Amerikas, Stuttgart,
1926, I, p. 149.
94 The vampire, in
Tupi Andyra, the Morcego of the Portuguese.
95 Wild honey
formed part of the food of most of the tribes of South America. The bee is
indigenous to both worlds, though the various American species, inferior in
size and in honey-making capacity to those of the other hemisphere, have never
been reduced to captivity. E. J. Payne, History of the New World called
America, Oxford, 1892, Vol. I, p. 377.
96 The Flamingo,
described in ch. xix.
97 The Papaw Tree
(Carica Papaya), generally called Mammoeira
from the fruit Mammao being shaped like mammæ [R. B.]. The writer of the Treatise of Brazil, Purchas
(reprint), XVI, p. 473, calls it the Janipaba tree:
"Of this fruit is made a blacke Inke: when it is made it is white, and annointing
themselves therewith it stayneth not presently, but
within a few houres the partie
remayneth as blacke as any Jeat."
98 On the cotton
plant see E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, Oxford,
1892, I, p. 369.
99 The Tupi word Jetyca is also applied
to the batata or sweet potato [R. B.].
100 Peter Rösel is mentioned in ch. lii, Pt. I. He is referred to also by Ulrich Schmidel, another German who was at San Vincente
in 1553. See "Voyage of Ulrich Schmidt" (Schmidel)
in The Conquest of the River Plate, Hakluyt Society, 1891, p. 86.
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