unfavorable idea of these tribes, who prove so wholly intractable to civilization.
A NATIVE PRIEST AND BACKSLIDER.
Such is the irresistible attraction of the wilderness, that those who have left it cannot live amid other surroundings. The Portuguese annals mention the case of a Botocudo who, taken from the forest while yet a mere child, was brought to Bahia and educated in a monastery. His progress, intelligence, and aptitude having been noticed, he received redoubled attention. Here was a precious acquisition: in him was seen the future missionary of his tribe. As he manifested a taste for the holy orders, he was made a priest, Having at length become free, he left the monastery under the pretext of a promenade, entered the forest that encircled the city, and never reäppeared. It was afterwards ascertained that, instead of catechising his fellows, he had adopted their primitive costume and their wild habits.
LANGUAGE OF THE BOTOCUDOS.
The maxim of Buffon, 'The style is the man,' was never, perhaps, more justly applicable than to the shapeless idiom of the Botocudos. The wooden disk attached to their lower lip, forcing it to drop upon the chin, exposes their teeth to view, and prevents them from articulating the labials. If a b or a p occurs in a syllable, they are obliged to bring their lips together with their hands to produce the required sound. An analysis of their words reveals in the clearest manner the primitiveness of their social condition. Show them a cane and they will answer tchoon, (tree.) With them a cane is only a tree stripped of its branches. Then ask them the name of a post, and they will again answer tchoon; of a branch, or piece of wood, or a stake, and still it is tchoon. The single word po expresses, according to circumstances, the hand, the foot, the fingers, the phalanges, the nails, the heels, and the toes. Animality, which seems to be their only code, is especially conspicuous in compound words. If they wish to speak of a sober man they call him cooang-a-mah, (empty belly;) or of night, they would say taroo; tatoo, (time of hunger,) because, gluttonous as they are improvident, they never lay by any provision, and are obliged at night to await impatiently the return of daylight to supply the wants of a stomach never satisfied. With most nations, or at least with the occidental nations, the idea of the just preceded that of the unjust, as is indicated by the compound form of the latter in the different languages—un-just, in-juste, un-gerecht, in-iquus, a-dikos, etc. With the Botocudos it is the reverse; the normal condition is that of the thief—neinkaik. An honest man would therefore be a non-thief, (neiakaik-amnoop.) In the same manner, lying (yahpahwaing) being their custom, the truth would be yahpahwaing-amnoop, (a non-lie.)
'BUNGS.'
What could have been the origin of the wooden disk inserted in their lower lip, and which has given them the name of Botocudos?[1] I had attributed it to a religious practice, the meaning of which had easily been lost among a people without traditions; but an untiring traveller, M. Biard, has informed us that he has seen this disk serve them as a table. This, however, was probably only the trick of some young Botocudos, who thought to get a glass of cachaça for his cleverness. Such a performance would not be possible by a person of mature years, for with such the lip, obeying the weight of the disk, falls over upon the chin. I saw a chief of these savages appointed capitão by the Emperor of Brazil, who had consented to wear pantaloons and to leave off these hideous ornaments. The flesh of the lip had been brought sufficiently close to heal, and left visible only an enormous scar; but the lobes of the ears, not so
- ↑ Botoque signifies, in Portuguese, the bung of a barrel, whence the name Botocudos, men with bangs.
