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Show Strange Savages in South America Mystery of the Roarer Which No Woman is Ever Allowed to See. (Cincinnati Enquirer.) The survivors of past generations of aborigines still barbaric in their customs, cus-toms, to the pofular mind, are located in Africa or in the far east. The new world is commonly supposed to be free of human relics of a thousand years ago. Yet, in the heart of South America, near the southern border of Brazil, there exist at present tribes of savages not as advanced in civilization civiliza-tion as the red men met by Columbus or the prehistoric Virginians found by Captain John Smith on these shores. A trip among these so-called Indians of South America, made by W. A. Cook, partly in the interest of the bureau bu-reau of American ethnology, is described de-scribed in a" recent publication of the Smithsonian institution, in which he tells of the Rororo Indians of Matto Grosso, Brazil, a people strange to the descendants of Europeans. Mr. Cook made this adventurous trip in company with Senor Antonio Candido de Carvalho, a Brazilian explorer ex-plorer of large experience and influence, influ-ence, and with him collected many native na-tive implements, ornaments and other objects which have since been forwarded for-warded and placed with other ethnological ethno-logical collections in the United States National museum. Indians Gathered. He describes his journey through the wilderness to a rough ranch belonging to Senor de Carvalho near a Bororo village. He says: "As soon as our arrival became known, our ranch, scarcely more than an open shed, began to fill rapidly with our painted friends of all ages and sizes and both sexes, who came to observe us and to see the marvelous things we had brought them from our enchanted world. They pour in upon us regularly at the break of day and stay faithfully until the shadows of night begin to deepen, and though coming and going constantly we always al-ways have our full complement. If we open one of our pack-mule trunks . our visitors are on the alert to handle whatever may strike their fancy. If we eat every mouthful of food is closely close-ly scrutinized, and whatever we may s do is observed with the closest atten- tion. They recline on our boxes. I sprawl on our tables, lean against the I posts, squat on the ground and hunch j down around our pot as it boils, al- ways leaving a patch of paint wher- j ever they sit or lean. Some smoke, ( i others lazily pick and eat the kernels' f from a roasted ear of corn, others nib- j ble the white cheese-like heart of a i diminutive palm that furnishes a con- ; Fiderable part of their food; the boys t devour bits of fish roasted black, or j shoot at a stick or a stump with their i x crude bows and arrows. Just outside ! the door men gossip, vacantly gazing, ' but never once toward the one they : address, or they ask us a few questions f in the limited language that we know ! , in common. The women and children f t usually form an outer frince to this ! group. Whenever there is prospect of obtaining beef our congregation is at once largely increased. They never steal an thing that is distinctively ours, though they will take anything we have bought of them if they have 1 an opportunity. .JThey Wear Bangs. "The long, straight, coarse black hair of both males and females hangs in a tangled mass about their shoulders, shoul-ders, except above the forehead, where jt is kept chopped off to form bangs. Nearly all the single young plaster these bangs with a sort of red putty made from the smali yellowish-red fruit of the burity palm and fish oil, and the same paste is used to paint the entire body. Boys and girls who are esteemed by their parents also have the foretop arranged in this way, and a few of the latter who are regarded re-garded with special favor have it plaited with a layer of beautiful red leathers. One woman was covered with white feathers from head to foot, with a brilliant plume in her hair. All young men and boys wear suspended sus-pended from a hole in the lip, bored during infancy, a kind of chain called riogodau, about six inches long, made of flat oval-shaped bits of shell, terminating ter-minating in a red feather. The older men have a plug in this hole, for if left open it causes difficulty in drinking." drink-ing." The village itself, according to Mr. Cook, is just as strange. He says: "There were thirfy huts in the village vil-lage that encircled in a very irregular way, facing in every direction, a very large hut that stood in the center and was called baehytu. Bae (by) is the name of the ordinary family hut. This baehytu is the bachelors' hall, the headquarters of all the unmarried men. I the workshop where the men make weapons and ornaments and instruments, instru-ments, the dining room, the town hall where most public functions occur oc-cur and the club where visitors are received and entertained. The baehytu bae-hytu is entered through an opening at each end, like a hole in a hay-Ftack, hay-Ftack, and within is always dark, gloomy and foul smelling. To Keep Out Flies. "The family huts are mostly like a roof resting on the ground, and strongly strong-ly resemble an old haystack with a hole eaten in each end, though occasionally occa-sionally the hut is raised a little and woven palm branch tongues form a basket-like wall. Deep gloom reigns within these huts. They are made dark that they may be free from flies, and are dens of rubbish and filth. Stuck to the roof are bows and bundles bun-dles of arrows, war clubs, fishing gear and instruments and ornaments not in use at the moment. The occupants of this human lair are sprawled on a palm leaf rug. with a log of wood four inches in diameter for a pillow, and sleeping or gnawing an ear of corn, a "hit of fish or vegetable, or sitting, making beads, arrows or other objects, or kneeling by the little fire preparing food. When the filth b?ronies unbearable unbear-able or disease is prevalent they do not trouble to clean house, -but simply abandon and burn the old and build a new one on a clean spot. Usually the entire village moves to a new place some distance away." Their death ceremony is a weird undertaking. un-dertaking. Mr. Cook paints it vividly: "A day or so after our arrival a child of seven or eight .years, belonging belong-ing to one of the leading families, died. This gave us an opportunity to witness a strange ceremony. "A loud, deep, prolonged he"-aw, ho-o, ah-h, w-as bellowed by a quartet of naked, painted and feathered savages, sav-ages, squatting slightly in unison with each note, and shaking huge calabash rattles. This was accompanied by the wailing chant of a chorus of women ' Handing just behind the quartet and I waving fans to keep away the flies, i The snort of two huge flutes, the bark- ! ing of the calabash trumpets, the. la ment of the savage mother, her bodf besmeared with her own blood, kneel- ing py the corpse of her child, the hairs jerked from her head half a dozen at a time, by a female crouched behind her, the lamentations of the father, with his hair clipped, as he kneeled on the other side of the body and recited the virtues of the deceased loved one. and the low, mournful chant of the female relatives or friends as they slashed their legs and arms, or oven their entire bodies, with sharpened sharp-ened shells this was the drama that unfolded itself one beautiful summer morning as we crept into the baehytu of the Ta-Dare-Mano Paro village. Strange Funeral Rites. "The little daughter of a chief had been summoned from her earthly bae to wander with the bope (evil spirits), and the funeral ceremonies were in progress. "When a Bororo is ill a priest is call-! ed to determine whether he w ill recover re-cover or die. On entering the hut and looking at his sick tribesman and concluding con-cluding that he will probably die or should die, he will count his fingers, and each time he touches one fineer will repeat, 'Meri. meri. meri, meri meri, hi,' meaning that the man will see five suns, five days, and die, or he may say, 'Nadua, nadua, nadua, etc., hi,' meaning1 sleep, sleen, tc, five days, and die. If at the end of this time he still lives, the executioner, sent, of course, by the priest, will suddenly sud-denly appear in the hut, sit astride his stomach and strangle him to death, for the reputation of the nri.-wt be sustained. The priests are probably responsible for not a few deaths. They are the bane of life in the tribe. They must nurture the delusion that they can communicate with and havo influence influ-ence in the other world and L.cwer to avert or cause evils and calamities They are therefore on the al-rt to take advantage of any propitious occasion to prey upon the superstitious fears of their fellow-tribesmen. They are freely supplied . with food by their fellow fel-low tribesmen in order to retain their good will. "The Bororo consider the sun as the fountain head of majesty r.nd power and even of beneficence, and as the abode of the great priests whi have passed to the spirit world, and fear him. Bope means spirit or disembodied disembod-ied soul, but they seem to have ,o idea of a good spirit. The bope. who are evil spirits, must therefore not be offended of-fended Although they must be driven awav. , Driving Off Spirits. "To drive the spirits off tlv?y use a bull-roarer, a peculiar instrument made of a slab of wood about half an inch thick, shaped somethiii-r like a fish, and ofvarying size, hung by a long cord, from the end of a .stick like a fishing rod. and swung round and round through the air. A it svings and rapidly revolves it sends fonh loud sounds to a surprising distance, pitched from a sepulchral moan to an unearthly shriek, the wail rising and descending the scale according t the rapidity of the swine- or the si ,.f the instrument. 'To hear several of these roarers at once certainly produces most unusual sensations, particularly when operated, as we heard them, during a trepicai storm amid the oiay ot lightning, the crash and roar of thunder, tho falling floods and dismal gloom. No female is allowed to see this instrument under un-der pain of death. New one? are made as occasion demands, and they are burned immediately after their ned has passed. We entered the baehytu as some of these roarers wer. being made for the funeral prelude There was deep silence, and the word bope whispered low and mysteriously. Certain Cer-tain warning- calls are givea some hours in advance of the time for bringing bring-ing the roarers into use. and, hoarin-? these warnings, the females enter their huts, close the openings and h'-le their heads. The roare s are nian-pulated outside the vlUag-3 up and down through the bush. We had difficulty in securing examples of there instruments. instru-ments. They were brought to tis at night, securely wrapped and amid the greatest secrecy, every precaution being be-ing takerf-fto make sure that we would keep them where there would be no possibility of a female seeing- them. "The Bororo are expert swimmers and are fishermen of the hishest order. or-der. One mode of fishing is to swim out into the river, three or four miles above the village, with a net called buke, like a great bag, its mouth secured se-cured to two parallel rods nine to twelve feet long, bound together at their ends. When one or more fish are seen the mouth of the sack is opened by springing the rods apart, and with wonderful dexterity the fish are bagged bag-ged and the mouth of the net quickly closed by allowing the rods to spring toeether. The fisherman then the game, especially if It be large; gradually rolls the net over the rods till the fish cannot move, brings it to the surface and kills it with a club which he trails by a cord from his neck. Big Fish Catches. "The fish is now taken from the net, strung on a cord and floated along with the club. Sometimes two or more fish of 12 or 15 pounds will be taken at one catch, or maybe one weighing as much as the man himself will be bagged bag-ged in this way. A Bororo will remain in the mater an hour or two continuously, continu-ously, and return ashore with six or eight large fish." "The Bororo are wonderful whistlers," whis-tlers," says Mr. Cook, "and seem able thus to communicate whatever they otherwise would by speech. "All the fine ornamental work is done by the men. A great deal of time and labor is spent in making seemingly unimportant articles, and the time consumed in shaking and burnishing an arrow is astonishing, generally the Inrger part of two days. The shell or-;ia!int or-;ia!int worn around the neck is made by the reciprocating motion of the point of a sharp instrument of flint or of iron or steel, if they can obtain It, fastened near the center of a roughly-shaped roughly-shaped shell. A fire is kindled in the same way by boring a wooden rod into another bit. of ood. "The Bororo are the tallest of any South American Indians I have seen. do not remember one man under five feet seven inches, and they are somo-tim somo-tim s six fen three or four inches tall. They are full-faced, the ncse well shaped ;mJ not large nor particularly ilat, nor are the cheek bones especially especi-ally prominent. Many of the children and some of the young men are quite handsome. "The tribe is supposed to number between be-tween 5,000 and 10,000 souls. We visited vis-ited eight villages and settlements." drunkenness. At a dinner here in Pittsburg I once heard him rebuke, with a litle anecdote, a snobbish millionaire. mil-lionaire. "He said there was a rich and snobbish snob-bish Englishwoman living in the coun-trv. coun-trv. Her husband put himself up -for a 'political place, and in order to help his campaign along, the woman -rave a garden party, to which every voter for mlies around was invited. "Among the humble guests was a very independent grocer. The grocer made himself quite at home. No duke's manner could have been easier and freer. Indeed, the man's total lack of subservience angered his hostess extremely, ex-tremely, so that in the end, blinking to take him down a peg, she said to him singnificantly: " 'ou know, Mr. Grens, in London shopkeepers don't go into the best society-' y j "The grocer looken at her and nodded and smiled. " 'They don't here, either, ma'aiii, he said. |