One of the largest semi-civilised tribes inhabiting the banks of the
Tapajos are the Mundurucus. They are noted for tattooing their bodies
more completely than any other tribe. The whole body is covered with
straight lines in diagonal patterns from the mouth downwards, the upper
part being left free. Some of the women, whose bodies are ornamented in
the same fashion, have lines round their eyes, which look as if they
were intended to represent a pair of spectacles. Even these marks,
however, do not destroy the soft drooping look of the eyes common to
Indian women. The countenances of some of the men are fine; the face,
bold, solid, and square, possessing a passive dignity, with a look of
tranquillity which appears immovable.
The more elaborate style of tattooing is only practised by the chiefs,
as a mark of their birth and rank. It requires ten years to complete
the whole process. The colour is introduced by fine puncturings over
the surface--a painful process, which causes swelling and inflammation.
They are among the most warlike Indians of the Amazon, and keep the
neighbouring and less civilised tribes on their good behaviour. They
are expert agriculturists, and construct canoes and hammocks. They
generally make a foray every year on an adjoining tribe,--the
Parentintins,--when they kill the men, whose heads they preserve by
drying and smoking, while they take the women and children for slaves.
They have regular villages of conical huts, the walls and framework
filled in with mud and thatched with palm-leaves. In the centre is a
large hut in which the fighting men sleep, with their weapons ready for
use. It is ornamented within with the dried heads of their enemies.
They have of late years greatly decreased in numbers.
Some thirty tribes or families are found on the River Uapes. The men
wear their hair in a long tail hanging down the middle of the back,
while the women wear it loose, and cut to a moderate length. The only
dress worn by the men is a small piece of matting passed between the
legs, and secured round the loins by a string. The women wear none
whatever, but paint their bodies in regular patterns,--generally red,
yellow, and black colours. The only ornament worn by the women is a
bracelet on the wrist; while below the knee a garter is fastened from
infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf.
The men, however, adorn themselves in a variety of ways. Their hair is
carefully parted and combed on each side. The young men, especially,
wear it in long locks on either side of their necks, with a comb stuck
on the top of the head--their feminine appearance being greatly
increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of beads which they wear,
and by their custom of pulling out every particle of hair from their
beard. As these feminine-looking warriors always carry their large
shields before them, it was but natural, when the Spaniards saw them, or
other tribes similarly adorned, that they should have supposed them to
be women. When, also, they saw in the distance parties of unadorned
persons carrying burdens, they took them to be slaves captured in war.
This, no doubt, was the origin of the fable of nations of Amazons found
on the banks of the river.