ared venture in his calculations. They
had no written language, no sculptures or paintings, no carved idols.
Their artistic talent seemed limited to occasionally incising rudimentary
representations of horns, footprints, and line figures on rocks.

They showed great skill in the manufacture of their arrows, which were
indeed constructed on most scientific lines, and were turned out with
wonderful workmanship. The arrows were from 4 to 5 ft. long, and were
chiefly remarkable for the intelligent and highly scientific disposition
of the two balancing parrot feathers, gently bent into a well-studied
spiral curve, so as to produce a rotary movement, united with perfect
balance, in the travelling weapon. The arrows were manufactured out of
hard, beautifully polished black or white wood, and were provided with a
point of bamboo one-third the length of the entire arrow. That bamboo
point was tightly fastened to the rod by means of a careful and very
precisely made contrivance of split cane fibre.

[Illustration: Bororo Children.

(The horrors of photography.)]

The Bororos used various-shaped arrow-heads, some triangular, others
flattened on one side with a raised rib on the opposite side, others
triangular in section with hollowed longitudinal grooves in each face
of the triangle in the pyramid, making the wound inflicted a deadly one.
Others, more uncommon, possessed a quadruple barbed point of bone.

The favourite style of arrows, however, seldom had a point broader in
diameter than the stick of the arrow.

The music of the Bororos--purely vocal--had three different rhythms: one
not unlike a slow waltz, most plaintive and melancholy; the second was
rather of a loud warlike character, vivacious, with ululations and
modulations. The third and most common was a sad melody, not too quick
nor too slow, with temporary accelerations to suit words of a more
slippery character in their pronunciation, or when sung in a _pianissimo_
tone.

The songs of the Bororos could be divided into: hunting songs, war songs,
love songs, and descriptive songs and recitatives.

They were fond of music in itself, and possessed fairly musical ears.
They were able to retain and repeat melodies quite foreign to them. Their
hearing was acute enough to discern, with a little practice, even small
intervals, and they could fairly accurately hit a note which was sung to
them. They had flexible voices, quite soft and musical, even in
conversation.