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about two inches long. Women and children do not wear this incommodious orna-ment *. Add to this, the front of their bodies is perfeftly uncovered. Their colouris more an olive than a black. Their King is called a Cacique.
The country produces an immenfe number of parrots, fo many indeed that a fmallmirror will purchafe eight or ten. They have likewife very handfome monkeys of ayellow colour, and refembling fmall lions f.
The inhabitants eat white bread made into a round fhape, but which we did notfancy. It is made with the pith, or rather the epidermis of a certain tree J, which hasmuch refemblance to curdled milk. They likewife have hogs, which feemed to us tohave their navel on the back §; and large birds, the beak of which refembles a fpoon,hut which are without tongues |j.
Occafionally, for a hatchet or cutlafs, they offered us one or more of their youngdaughters ^[, but never their wives ; nor indeed would thefe confent to have con-nection with any but their hufbands ; for notwithftanding the freedom allowed tounmarried girls, when married fo great is their modefty that they never fubmit to theembraces even of thofe to whom they are efpoufed but under the veil of night. Theyare fubjedt to the mod laborious toil, and often are they feen defcending from themountains, with bafkets on their head, very heavy laden ; never however do they goalone, their hufbands, who are highly jealous, conftantly accompanying them, the bowin one hand and arrows in the other. The bow is made of Brazil wood, dr the blackpalm. If the women chance to have young children they hang them in a net of cotton,which is fufpended from the neck. I could relate much more refpecling their manners,but to avoid prolixity I pafs over the reft.
Thefe people are exceeding credulous and well inclined, whence their converfion toChriftianity would be no difficult talk. As chance would have, we excited refpefl; andveneration. A great drought had long prevailed in the country, and as rain fell onour arrival, they attributed it to our coming. When we landed to fay mafs theyliftened with filence and an air of inquiry ; and feeing us unfhip our boats which hungfrom the fides, or which followed the {hips, they imagined them to be the childrenof the veflels, and thefe the mothers who gave them fuftenance.
* Vefpucci (Lettera al Confalon. Soderini In Ramufio, tomo I. p. 131.) likewife faw thefe cylindersin ufe with the inhabitants of Brazil ; Cook alfo noticed them among the Californians, and Stedman withthe inhabitants of Surinam . Keate, in his account of the Pelew Hands, conceives thefe cylinders to havebeen originally formed of odoriferous wood; and that they were run through the cartilage of the nofethat the wearers of them might conftantly enjoy a fragrant fmell.
_ t This monkey is the aquiqui. Hill. Gener. de Voy. tome xx. p. 552. Amor. It is called alfo theking monkey, is the link between the ape and baboon, and has a large beard fo well fafhioned as to feemas if trimmed by the barber. It is heard at a great diftance; and when it chatters, ufes fo much exertionas to foam at the mouth. Bomare. Eng. Tr.
J All who have navigated towards the fouth fpeak of fago, which is the pith of a fpecies of palmcalled the cabbage-palm. Stedman’s Voyage to Surinam .
§ This hog is the pecari or tajaffu; it has a kind of purfe or odoriferous gland on the back near therump, which has a flit in it, two or three lines in length, but upwards of an inch in depth, from which■exudes an odoriferous liquor. This animal is gregarious, like the genus of which it is a Angular variety,and even its young, although capable of becoming domefticated, are never made familiar. On killingthe animal the purfe on the back and the tefticles are inftantly cut away, as otherwife, in lefs than halfan hour the meat would be fpoiled, and unfit to eat. Bomare. Eng. Tr. (Sus dorfo ciftifero. Linn.)
II Spatulse, a kind of duck found in parts of Europe . (It is the anas roftro piano ad verticemdilatato. Linn.)
This firange pra&ice is common with all the inhabitants of the South Sea. (Cook’s SecondVoyage, book v.)
The