ntures, or tribal affairs. The greatest attention
was paid to the orator, and only after his speech was over a warm but
orderly discussion followed.

When a Bororo man was angry with another he would not descend to vulgar
language, but he generally armed himself with a bony spike of that deadly
fish, the _raja_ (_Rhinobates batis_) or _mehro_, as it was called in the
Bororo language, which he fastened to a wristlet. With it he proceeded in
search of his enemy, and on finding him, 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, it was sufficient to look at
their faces to be at once struck by the cruel expression upon them. They
prided themselves 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, sewing machines, fashionable hats, patent leather
shoes, automatic 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 "Indians
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
interesting to have taken a third photograph an hour after the second
picture had been taken,