“To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have shown eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. The children of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend the school diligently, and of them we have the best hopes.
“The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature; it seems to consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, sounds, all more or less nasal. It is this language that shows that the Saab and Hottentot belong to the same family.”
We now move to the parts on the left of the entrance, and begin with the parts opposite the Zulus and Bushmen. These give us the southern parts of South America—not, however, the extreme south.
GROUP IX.
BOTOCUDOS AND PAMPA GIRL.
The word Botocudo means plugged; and it belongs to the Portuguese language. It is applied by the Brazilians to the populations of this group, from the fact of their perforating their lips and ears, and inserting pieces of wood in the openings. In their quarrels, these are torn out, and shreds of the lip or ear to which they belong left hanging. One of these quarrels described and sketched in the Travels of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, is here represented, the faces being taken from casts in the possession of Professor Retzius, and the drawings in the Travels of Spix and Von Martius. The native name—the name by which the Botocudos designate themselves—is Engraecknung.
Their country lies to the north of Rio Janiero—between eighteen and twenty degrees N.L. It never touches the sea-coast now, whatever it may have once done. On the contrary, it lies inland, and is limited to the mountain-range called Tierra dos Aymores; wherein lie the sources of the rivers Doce and Pardo.
On each of these we find Botocudos; those of the latter having been induced to abandon, along with some of their more barbarous habits, their inveterate hostility to the Portuguese. The other still retain their original and notorious barbarism. They have ceased, however, to be formidable; though, in the sixteenth century, they carried on a destructive warfare against the settlers in the Government of Porto Seguro. They have the credit of being cannibals.
The language is peculiar, and different from the other Indians of the same range. Of these the Machacaris, the Patachos, the Camacans, the Malali, are the chief.
The girl in the bullock’s hide is one of the Pampa Indians; the face being taken from a cast of Professor Retzius.
The Pampas are vast plains to the south of the Rio Plata, destitute of trees, free from hills, and without rivers. They are traversed by innumerable herds of oxen and horses, in every stage of domestication or of wildness. The Indians, whose habits are determined by these physical conditions of the soil, are rude, ferocious, and independent; hardy even for Indians; and very Centaurs for their skill in horsemanship. They range over the whole district between the frontier of Buenos Ayres and the western foot of the Andes of Chili.