sed between the
legs, and secured round the loins by a string. The women wear none
whatever, but paint their bodies in regular patterns,--generally red,
yellow, and black colours. The only ornament worn by the women is a
bracelet on the wrist; while below the knee a garter is fastened from
infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf.

The men, however, adorn themselves in a variety of ways. Their hair is
carefully parted and combed on each side. The young men, especially,
wear it in long locks on either side of their necks, with a comb stuck
on the top of the head--their feminine appearance being greatly
increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of beads which they wear,
and by their custom of pulling out every particle of hair from their
beard. As these feminine-looking warriors always carry their large
shields before them, it was but natural, when the Spaniards saw them, or
other tribes similarly adorned, that they should have supposed them to
be women. When, also, they saw in the distance parties of unadorned
persons carrying burdens, they took them to be slaves captured in war.
This, no doubt, was the origin of the fable of nations of Amazons found
on the banks of the river.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES.

Sometimes these natives wear circlets of parrot and other gay feathers
on their heads, as well as armlets and leg ornaments of the same
materials. Some of these tribes have the horrible custom of baking the
bodies of their dead after they have become decomposed, till only a
black carbonaceous mass is left. This is pounded, and mixed with an
intoxicating liquor, called caxiri, in vats made out of hollow trees.
The relatives having been invited, the whole company drink the mixture,
under the belief that the virtues of the deceased will thus be
transmitted to them. Some of them are cannibals, and make war for the
express purpose of procuring human flesh. They smoke dry what they
cannot at once consume, thus preserving it a long time for food. They
have no definite idea of a God; but they dread an evil spirit, whom they
believe delights in afflicting them, and is the cause of death.

Their houses hold a number of families; sometimes a whole tribe. They
are upwards of 120 feet long, 80 feet broad, and 30 feet high. The plan
is a parallelogram, with a semicircle at the further end. A passage
twenty feet wide leads from one end to the other; while, on the sides,
are partitions, like the s