ve pain or hurt anybody; therefore the
Bororo, who was really at heart a great philosopher, never offered
prayers to that superior Being. Why pray and worry one who will never
injure us? they argued.

Then they believed in a wicked and revengeful devil, the _Boppe_, to whom
constant attention was paid because by him was caused all the trouble
that humans can have. Malady, accidents, disaster in love, in hunting or
fishing expeditions--for all these the devil _Boppe_ was responsible.

Then they had also another evil spirit--the _Aroe Taurari_--who, they
said, often assumed the appearance of their ancestors in order to come
and watch the games of the Bororos, such as wrestling and archery.
Wrestling--in the catch-as-catch-can style--was one of their favourite
games. They were very agile at it. Their favourite trick was to seize
each other across the shoulders, each endeavouring to trip his opponent
by a twisted leg round his knee. Children in the _aldejas_ were playing
at this game all the time. In the Bororo wrestling-matches it was
sufficient to be thrown down to be the loser, and it was not essential to
touch the ground with both shoulder-blades.

The only other game I saw among the Bororos was the test of strength. It
was carried out with a most striking article--a great wheel made of
sections, each one foot long, of the trunk of the _burity_ palm tied
together by double strings of fibre. The ribbon thus formed by them was
rolled so as to make a solid wheel of heavy wood 6 ft. in diameter. The
whole was retained in a circular form by a strong belt of vegetable
fibre. This great wheel was used by the Bororos in their sports, at
festivals, for testing the strength of the most powerful men. It was so
heavy that few men could lift it at all, the great test being actually to
place it on one's head and keep it there for a length of time.

[Illustration: Bororo Men, showing Lip Ornament.]

[Illustration: Bororo Men.]

The Indians of South America, like the Indians of North America, revelled
in decorating themselves with the feathers of brightly-coloured birds.
The red, yellow and blue giant macaws, fairly common in that region, paid
dearly for this fashion of the Indians. Many of those poor birds were
kept in captivity and plucked yearly of all their feathers in order to
make hair ornaments of beautiful blue and green plumage for the
leading musician, who rattled the _bacco_ (a gourd full of pebbles which
can make a te