The Antis almost always build their dwellings on the banks of a water-course, isolated and half hidden by a screen of vegetation. The huts are low and dirty, and pervaded by a smell like that of wild beasts, for the air can scarcely circulate in them. In the fine season of the year sheds take the place of closed-up huts ([fig. 183]).
The weapons used by the Antis are clubs and bows and arrows. Fishermen capture their prey in the running streams with arrows barbed at the ends, or having three prongs like a trident. Other darts, with palm-points or bamboo-heads, are employed by the hunter for birds and quadrupeds.
The Antis occasionally poison the waters of the creeks and bays by means of the Menispermum cocculus. The fish become instantaneously intoxicated; they first struggle, then rise belly uppermost, and come floating on the surface, where they are easily taken with the hand ([fig. 184]).
The earthenware of this people is coarsely manufactured, and is painted and glazed. They live in families, or in separate couples, and have no law beyond their own caprice. They do not elect chiefs, except in time of war, and to lead them against an enemy. The girls are marriageable at twelve years of age, and accept any husband who seeks them, if he has previously made some present to their parents. They prepare their lord and master’s food, weave his clothes, look after and gather in the crops of rice, manioc, maize, and other cereals; carry his baggage on a journey, follow him to battle, and pick up the arrows which he has discharged; they also accompany him in the chase or when fishing, paddle his canoe, and bring back to their dwelling the booty gained from an enemy, and the game or fish which has been killed; and yet, notwithstanding this severe work and continual bondage, the women are always cheerful.
183.—SUMMER SHED OF THE ANTIS.
They use a large earthen vessel to cook the fish caught in the nearest stream, or the game killed in the adjoining forest.
