One can almost envy the pious Italian his imagination in the clearing tropic night.
His next wonders were the sea birds, of which there were flocks and clouds, and with them appeared flying fish.
The ships were now off the coasts of Brazil and stopped at Verzim.
The people of the Brazilian Verzim were accustomed to paint themselves "by fire." We do not clearly understand how this painting "by fire" was done. The art of scorching has perished with them. But besides these indelible marks, the men had three holes in their lower lips, and hung in them, after the manner of earrings, small round ornamental stones, about a finger in length. The men did not shave, for they plucked out their beard.
Their only clothing was a circle of parrot feathers. How terribly gay they must have looked! And yet such customs were hardly more ridiculous than those of later times, and more civilized countries—earrings, beauty patches, plume, and snuffboxes.
It was the land of parrots. The most beautiful and intelligent parrots still come from Brazil. Columbus saw parrots in "clouds" over the islands of the Antilles.
Parrots were not expensive in these equatorial forests at this time. "The natives," says Pigafetta, "give eight or ten parrots for a looking glass," and as a looking glass would multiply the picture of parrots indefinitely the Verzimans must have thought the exchange a marvelous bargain.
If Brazilian parrots were cheap and so charming as likely to become an embarrassment of riches, so were the little cat monkeys which delighted the men. These little creatures, which looked like miniature lions, still delight the visitors to the coast of Brazil, but they shiver up when brought to the northern atmospheres and piteously cry for the home lands of the sun again.
Very curious birds began to excite the surprise of the voyagers, among such as had a "beak like a spoon," and "no tongue."
The markets of the new land displayed another commodity far more surprising than birds or animals, young slaves, which were offered for sale by their own families. So a family who had many children was rich. It cost a hatchet to buy one of these, and for a hatchet and a knife one might buy two.