FOOTNOTES
[2] This custom of the Indians, seems by the following extract from Josephus to have had its prototype in eastern lands in times of very ancient date.
Josephus, “Wars of the Jews,” book 7, chap. 8, s. 7. In Eleazar’s speech to the Sicarii, when advising his followers to put themselves to death rather than fall alive into the hands of the Romans, occur these words:—“We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if we do not stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends that are dead; so firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another in the other world. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going on a very long journey, who, at the same time, weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians?”
CHAPTER X.
The rapid of Trés Irmãos—Meeting with the Pacaguara savages—The river Trés Irmãos—Wild turkeys.
On the morning of the 9th, we left Girão at six o’clock, with all our blankets and clothes thoroughly wet, and with no chance of drying them. No coffee, either, could be had, as no dry sticks could be found; so we had to be content with a nip at the flask, and a tot of cachaça served all round to the crew. We had more rain during the day, everything in consequence being dull and dispiriting. I had a smart attack of shakes and fever at night, probably from the severe wetting endured the previous night. I stopped work at about four in the afternoon, so as to give time to get some kind of shelter ready and some supper cooked, passing the night in the camarote or cabin of the canoe, as I was afraid of the damp on shore after the heavy rain of the previous night.
For the 10th there was nothing special to note; the weather improved, and we made pretty fair progress. On the 11th we came, about 8 a.m., in sight of the hills of Trés Irmãos, or the “Three Brothers,” the highest hills I had yet seen in the district. We passed the rapid of the same name towards nightfall without any difficulty, and very little towing work. This rapid is only troublesome to travellers when the river is low; when there is plenty of water it becomes merely a corriente. As we were making our canoes fast for the night a short distance above the rapid, we heard voices below us, and, stealing up out of the deepening shadows, saw a bark canoe approach, with three men and a child seated in it. They were the first “Barbaros,” or savages, that I had seen, and were objects of great interest to me. They were of the tribe called “Pacaguaras,” and have their “malocal,” or clearing, on the river Trés Irmãos, which runs into the Madeira on the Brazilian side. They are not to be confounded with the Caripunas that are generally met with at the rapid of Calderão do Inferno, and were very careful to let us know that they were Pacaguaras, and not Caripunas. The three men were of very fair features, two of them rather good-looking, and, except in their adornments of feathers, very similar to the Bolivian Indians of the Beni, although, perhaps, a shade lighter in colour. Their hair is jet black, cut squarely above their eyebrows, and hanging down behind almost to their shoulders; they have no whiskers or beard. The absence of these facial appendages seems to be a characteristic of the savage tribes of the interior of South America, and I observed that these Pacaguaras seemed to be much surprised at the length of these adornments of some of the travellers, and would take hold of one’s whiskers, giving them a good pull, possibly with a view to see if they were false; when, finding that they adhered firmly to the faces, they would burst out into a hearty laugh. They were dressed in shirts and trousers that they had received from the engineering parties that had lately been up the river, but in their natural state a few feathers and a little string form the whole of their wardrobe. It is said that when once they put on an article of clothing that is given to them, they never remove it until it drops to pieces, and certainly the state of the shirts I saw them in warranted the report. Their language appears to be a succession of semi-articulated sounds, shrugs, signs, and much laughter, and the word “shuma,” which is said to mean “good,” stands them in great stead in their conversation with passers-by. Some of them have picked up a few Spanish and Portuguese words, and the first question they address to one is to ask one’s name; and if they hear a new one, they give it to the next child that is born in their malocal. The three men that paid us a visit were named Patricio, Isiriaco, and Gregorio, while the head man, or “Capitan,” of the tribe is one Mariano, who, however, is not a true Pacaguara, but a runaway Cayubaba, from the town of Exaltacion in the Beni. They were very friendly to us, and seemed to be very pleased to see my mayordomo again, as they had known him some months before, when he was up the river with the railway engineers. We gave them some cachaça and some biscuits, and they promised to bring us some yucas and maize in the morning, and, bidding us good-night, they paddled away in the dark at a rapid rate. Their bark canoes are wonderful structures, being about fifteen or sixteen feet long, and made out of one single piece of bark, about half or three quarters of an inch in thickness, tied tip at either end, and stretched out in the middle, the stretchers forming the seats. These canoes are rather heavy to carry on land, but, sitting very lightly on the water, are driven along rapidly, with very little exertion on the part of the paddlers. They also appear to be very safe, and will go up or down all the smaller rapids. There is generally a small fire carried at one end, where a sufficient quantity of earth is placed to prevent the canoe being burnt. If all the “Barbaros” were like these Pacaguaras, they would give but little trouble to travellers or settlers, a little stealing being probably the only annoyance to be anticipated from them.
CASCARA, OR BARK CANOE OF THE CARIPUNAS AND OTHER TRIBES OF THE RIVER MADEIRA.