Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/190

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IN EASTERN BRAZIL.

71

the principal king over all of them. Many others bad assembled at his place and made great rejoicings in their manner; they also wanted to see me, for he had ordered that I also should be brought there that day.

Now when I came close upon the huts, I heard a great noise of singing and blowing of horns, and in front of the huts were fixed some fifteen heads on stakes. These belonged to a tribe who are also their enemies, and are called the Markayas,^[1] whom they had eaten. As they led me past them, they told me that the heads were from the Markayas, who were also their enemies. Then terror possessed me; I thought, thus they will also do with me. Now as we were entering the huts, one of those who had me in their keeping, went before me and spoke with loud words, so that all the others heard it, "Here I bring the slave, the Portuguese." And he appeared to think it was something worth seeing, when a man had his enemy in his power. He said also many other things as is their custom, and then he led me to where the king sat and drank together with the others, and had made themselves drunk with the beverage which they make, called kawawy. He looked savagely at me, and said, "O our enemy! art thou come?" I said: "I am come, but I am not your enemy.' Then they gavo me also to drink. Now I had heard much of the king Konyan Bebe, how great a man he was, also a great cannibal at eating human flesh. And there was one among them who

↑ Called Marckayas (chap. xxxvii) and Karayas (? Part 2, chap. xí); elsewhere Margajas (Margayas), Margaias, Maracás, and Maracuyás, an insulting name, meaning wild cats (see Introduction). In chapter lii we find that “Los Markayas" are neighbours and enemies of the Tupiniquins, occupied the coast between Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, spoke the Tupi tongue, and formed part of the great confederation. De Lery records their bitter hostility to the Tupinambás of Rio de Janeiro. In 1557 Villegagnon carried off ten lads of the tribe, aged from eight to ten years, and presented them to Henri II, who bestowed them upon M. de Passi and other courtiers. Hence the savages are often alluded to by the French poets of the sixteenth century.

[1] Called Marckayas (chap. xxxvii) and Karayas (? Part 2, chap. xí); elsewhere Margajas (Margayas), Margaias, Maracás, and Maracuyás, an insulting name, meaning wild cats (see Introduction). In chapter lii we find that “Los Markayas" are neighbours and enemies of the Tupiniquins, occupied the coast between Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, spoke the Tupi tongue, and formed part of the great confederation. De Lery records their bitter hostility to the Tupinambás of Rio de Janeiro. In 1557 Villegagnon carried off ten lads of the tribe, aged from eight to ten years, and presented them to Henri II, who bestowed them upon M. de Passi and other courtiers. Hence the savages are often alluded to by the French poets of the sixteenth century.

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