Manners and Customs of the Tupinambas, exemplified in the extraordinary Adventures of Hans Stade. [From Mr. Southey's History of Brazil] Hans had a German friend settled at St. Vincente, as overseer of some sugar-works, which belonged to Giuseppe Adorno, a Genoese. His name was Heliodorus, and he was son of Eoban, a German poet of great celebrity in his day; he was from the same country as Hans, and had received him into his house after the shipwreck, with that brotherly kindness which every man feels for a countryman when they meet in so remote a Jand. This Heliodorus came with another friend to visit Hans in his castle. There was no other market where he could send for food to regale them except the woods, The but this was well stocked. wild boars were the finest in the whole country, and they were so numerous that the inhabitants killed them for their skins, of which they made a leather that was preferred to cow-hides for boots and chair bottoms. He had a Cario slave who used to hunt for him, and whom he never feared to accompany to the chase; him he sent into the woods to kill game, and went out to meet him the next day, and see what success he had had. The war-who p was set up, and in an instant he was surrounded by the Tupinambas. He gave himself up for lost, and exclaimed, Into thy hands, Q Lord, do I commit my spirit. The prayer was hardly ended before he was knocked down; blows and arrows fell upon him from all sides; but he received only one wound, in the thigh. Their first business was to strip him; hat, cloak, jerkin, shirt, were presently torn away, every one seizing what he could get. To this part of the prize possession was sufficient title; but Hans's body, or carcase, as they considered it, was a thing of more consequence. A dispute arose who had first laid hands on him, and they who bore no part in it amused themselves by beating the prisoner with their bows. It was settled that he belonged to two brethren; then they lifted him up and carried him off as fast as possible towards their canoes, which were drawn ashore, and concealed in the thicket. A large party who had been left in guard, advanced to meet their triumphant fellows, showing Hans their teeth, and biting their arms to let him see what what he was to expect. The chief of the party went before him, wielding the iwara pemme, the club with which they slaughter their prisoners, and crying out to him, Now, Pero (as they called the Portuguese) thou art a most vile slave! now thou art in our hands! now thou shalt pay for our countrymen whom thou hast slain! They then tied his hands; but another dispute arose, what should be done with him. The captors were not all from the same dwelling-place; no other prisoner had been taken, and they who were to return home without one, exclaimed against giving him to the two brethren, and were for killing him at once. Poor Hans had lived long enough in Brazil to understand all that was said, and all that was to be done; he fervently said his prayers, and kept his eye upon the slaughter-club. The chief of the party settled the dispute by saying, We will carry him home alive, that our wives may rejoice over him, and he shall be made a kaawy-pepike; * that is, he was to be killed at the great drinking feast. Then they tied four cords round his neck, fastened them to the ends and sides of a canoe, and pushed off. i There was a little island near, in which the sea-fowl, called goarazes, bred. The down of the young bird is of the grey colour of ashes; their feathers for the first year are brown, then they become of a bright and glowing red. These red feathers were the favourite ornament of all the savage tribes. They inquired of their prisoner whether the Tupini quins had been that season-to take the brooding birds; and though he assured them that they had, they made towards the island. Before they reached it, they saw canoes coming in pursuit of them. The slave of Hans, who had seen his master taken, fled and gave the alarm, and the Tupiniquins, and a few Portuguese with them, were hastening to his assistance. They called out to the Tupinam, bas to stop and fight, if they were men. Provoked at this detiance, they turred, loosened their prisoner's hands, and giving him powder and ball, which they had got from the French, made him load his own gun and fire at his friends; riends; the topes round his neck prevented him from leaping overboard. They soon, however, perceived their own rashness, and fearing that other forces would speedily come against them, made off. As they passed within falconshot of Bertioga, two shot were discharged at them, which just fell short; boats were put out from thence, but the Tupinambas pulled for their lives and outstripped them. About seven miles beyond Bertioga they landed upon an island where they meant to sleep. Hans's face was so swoln with the blows which he had received, that he could not see, and he could not stand because of the wound in his thigh, so he lay on the ground, and they stood round, telling him how they would eat him. Being in this condition, says he, I began to think, which I had never done sufficiently before, what a miserable life this is, and how full of * As we say, a Michaelmas goose, or Christmas ox. Nn4 changes changes and troubles! and he be gan to sing the 130th psalm, de profundis. Lo! said they, now he is bewailing his unhappy fate. The place which they had chosen not being a convenient station, they removed to the main land to some deserted huts of their own, drew their canoes ashore, and kindled a fire, to which they brought their prisoner. They laid him in a hammock, fastened the cords which were still kept round his neck, to a tree, and from time to time through the night informed him, in their mirth, that he was now their beast. The next day a storm arose, and they called upon him to pray that it might not destroy them. Hans obeyed, beseeching God to shew the savages that his prayers were heard, and presently he heard them say the clouds were passing off; for he was lying along in the canoe, and could not lift his head, so severely had he been bruised. This change of weather he willingly attributed to his prayers, and returned thanks for it. A second night was passed like the first, and they congratulated each other that on the morrow they should reach home but I, says he, did not congratulate myself. 1 On the third evening they came to their town, which was called Uwattibi. It consisted of seven houses (a town seldom had more), but each house contained twenty or thirty families, who, as they were generally related to each other, may not improperly be called a clan. They are about fourteen feet wide, and one hundred and fifty long, more or less, according to the number of the clan. Each family has its own birth and its own fire, but there are no partitions whatsoever between them. The usual height of the roof is about twelve feet; it is convex, and well thatched with palms. These houses are built to enclose an area, in which they slaughter their prisoners: to each house there are three low doors, all towards the area. The town is surrounded first with a close palisado, in which loop-holes are left for their arrows; this palisado is so constructed as to form alternately two sides of a triangle, and three of a square; and without this is a circular one of high, strong stakes, not so closely set as the inner, neither far enough apart to leave room for passing through. At the entrance they set up a few heads of those whom they had devoured, stuck upon spikes upon these pales.. When the canoes arrived, the women were digging mandioc. The captors made Hans cry out to them in Brazilian, Here I am, come to be your meat! Out came the whole population, old men, children and all. Hans was delivered over to the women, who were, if possible, more cruel than the men on these occasions. They beat him with their fists, they pulled his beard, naming at every pluck and at every blow, some one of their friends who had been slain, and saying it was given for his sake. The children also were suffered to torment him at their pleasure; and all expressed their joy to him at the thoughts of the feast they 'were to have. The men meantime regaled themselves with potations of kaamy. They brought out the rattles, which they regard as oracles, and thanked them them for having truly said that they should return with prey. This lasted for about half an hour, during which time Hans was at the mercy of the women and children. The two brethren, Yeppipo Wasu and Alkindar Miri, to whom he had been adjudged, then came and stated to him, that their uncle, Ipperu Wasu, last year had given Alkindar a prisoner to kill, in order that he might have the glory of making a feast; but it was with this condition, that Alkindar should repay hini with the first prisoner whom he took. He was the first, and therefore the glory of making a feast of him was to be Ipperu Wasu's. Having explained this matter to him, they added that the girls would now come and lead him out to apprasse. What apprasse was he did not know; but this he knew, that it could be nothing good. The young women came, and led him by the cords which were still round his neck, into the area : the men went their way, and all the women of the settlement gathered round him. He had been stripped naked at the time of his capture: they handled him till they had satisfied their curiosity; then some took him up in their arms, while others pulled the ropes till he was nearly strangled. Then, says he, I thought what our Lord had suffered from the perfidious Jews, and that gave me strength and resignation. They carried him to the house of their chief, Uratinge Wasu, the Great White Bird; a little hillock of earth had just been raised at the entrance, upon which they seated him, holding him lest he should fall. This he expected was the place of death. He looked round to see if the slaughter-club was ready, and asked if he was to die now. Not yet, they told him. A woman then approached with a piece of broken glass set in a stick, with which instrument she scraped off his eye-brows, and began to perform the same operation upon his beard; but Hans resisted this, and declared that he would die with his beard. They did not persist now, but some days afterwards sheared it off with a pair of French scissars. Then they led him before the door of the tabernacle, wherein the Maraca, or rattles of divination, were kept; they fastened a string of little rattles round each leg, and placed upon his head a square coronal of straight feathers. Two women stood on each side of him, the rest made a circle round, and bade him dance to their singing. He could scarcely stand for the pain of his wound, nevertheless dance he must, and keep time in his steps, that the anklets may rattle-in in tune. This dance was the apprasse: it seems to have been a religious ceremony in honour of the Maraca. After it was performed, he was delivered into the hands of Ipperu Wasu, in payment for the prisoner with which that chief had accommodated his nephew. From him Hans learned that he had yet some time to live, All the Maraca were now. brought out. This familiar oracle of the Brazilian savages is made of a fruit so called, which resembles a gourd, and is capable of containing about three pints in its cavity. This is fixed upon a handle; 1 handle; human hair is sometimes fastened on the top, and a slit is cut in it to represent a mouth, through which their jugglers, whom they call Payes, make it utter its responses. A few pebbles are inserted to make it rattle, and it is crowned with the red feathers of the goaraz. Every man had his Maraca. They were now all produced; Hans was set in the midst of them, and the captors addressed them, saying, their prediction had been verified; it had promised them a Portugueze prisoner, and lo! they had brought one home. Upon this Hans spake up, and denied that the prediction could be verified in him. The Maraca, he said, lied if it called him a Portugueze; he was a German, and the Germans were friends and allies of the French. The Tupinambas calmly replied, it was he who was the liar; for if he was the friend and ally of the French, how came he to live among the Portugueze? We know, said they, that the French are as much the enemies of the Portugueze as we are: they come to us every year, and bring us knives, scissars, axes, combs, and looking glasses, for which we give them wood, cotton, pepper, and feathers. The Portugueze are a very different people. When they came first to the country, they went to our enemies, and made alliance with them, and built towns among them, wherein they still reside; afterwards they came in ships to us, to trade with us as the French do now, and when our people, suspecting no danger, went on board as guests, they seized them, carried them away, and gave them to our enemies to be devoured. Many of our brethren have since been killed by their bullets, and we suffer great injuries from them. The two brethren then told him that their father's arm had been carried away by a ball, of which wound he died, and that death was now to be avenged upon him. Hans protested again; there could be no reason, he said, to revenge it upon him, he was not a Portugueze, but having been shipwrecked in a Castilian vessel, was by that means cast among them. The Tupinambas were not without some sense of justice. There was a lad among them who had once been taken by the Tupiniquins: they had surprized a settlement, and captured all its inhabitants; all who were grown up were eaten; the children were made slaves, and this boy had belonged to a Gallego at Bertioga.. He knew Hans, and they called upon him to give evidence concerning him. The lad said a ship had been wrecked there belonging to the Castilians, who were friends to the Portugueze, and this prisoner was in the ship; but this was all he knew. Hans, when they began to inquire into the truth of his demurrer, saw some hope of escaping. He knew there were some French interpreters in the country, left there to collect pepper for the traders; he repeated, that he was the friend and brother of the French, and protested against being eaten before he could be seen by some of that nation and acknowledged by them. This was thought reasonable, and he was carefully watched till an opportunity should occur of submitting him to this proof. |