195.—INDIAN WOMAN OF BRAZIL.
“This nation, as the reader has doubtless surmised, lives in a state of absolute liberty and complete independence of the government of the Paraguayan Republic, which imposes neither tax nor statute labour upon it, but on the contrary pays the Payaguas for any services that are exacted of them, whether as messengers on the river or as guides in the expeditions directed against the wild hordes that wander along the right bank.
“. . . Being desirous to become acquainted with, and to be able to sketch at my ease, in the midst of all the savage luxury of his garb, the individual who was entrusted with these functions, I contrived to get him to come to my house arrayed in the emblems of his high dignity and accompanied by some other Indians. The promise of a certain quantity of his beloved liquor, coupled with the prospect of an evening’s drunkenness, speedily got the better of his reluctance.
“On the day named the paye came to see me. He was an old man, somewhat bent with years, but with nothing repulsive in his countenance, notwithstanding the disfiguration of the features, which is always premature and so remarkable among the natives. His hair was still black and confined in a fillet bordered with beadwork, over which was a tuft of feathers, while nandu plumes waved behind his head; a necklace of bivalve shells was on his neck, and from it hung, as a trophy, a whistle made from the arm-bone of an enemy. He was quite naked beneath his sleeveless and collarless vest which consisted of two jaguar-skins, and wore strings of capivaras’ claws round his ankles. Finally, his right hand contained an elongated gourd, and he held in his left a long tube of hard wood, which I had some difficulty in recognizing as a pipe.
“The curtain rises. The sorcerer gave the pipe to his companion, whose duty consisted in lighting it, and, taking it again, inhaled several puffs which he blew noisily into the calabash through the orifice bored in it; then, without removing it from his lips, he began shouting, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly, uttering alternately the syllables ‘ta, ta’, and ‘to, to, to’, with extraordinary, inexpressible, reiterations of voice and piercing yells. He gave way at the same time to violent contortions, and executed a measured series of leaps, now on one foot, and now on both joined together. This performance did not last any length of time, and on a pretext of fatigue he was not long without coming to a stand-still. A bumper was indispensable in order to set him on his legs again, and the monotonous chant immediately recommenced.
“My drawings being finished, I at last broke up the sitting to the general satisfaction of my guests, and dismissed them, having first purchased his pipe and whistle from the paye. The former article was made of hard and heavy wood and covered with regular tracings engraved on the surface with a good deal of skill. It was about a foot and a half long, ornamented with gilt nails, and pierced by a tube which was widened at one end and terminated at the other by a mouth-piece. This pipe is also to be found among other neighbouring nations, as well as among the Tobas and Matacos on the banks of the Pilcomayo. It gives an idea of those enormous cigars made from a roll of palm or tobacco leaves, which played so important a part in Brazil, in the ceremonies of the Tupinambas, and among the Caraibs of the Antilles, on all occasions when the question of peace or war had to be decided, when the shades of ancestors were to be conjured up, etc., and which the first navigators mistook for torches.”
196.—NATIVE OF MANAOS, BRAZIL.