Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/192

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IN EASTERN BRAZIL.
73


a kind of sea-shell;[1] such are their ornaments: of these the king had also some six fathoms length hanging round his neck. It was by his ornaments I perceived that he must be one of the noblest.

Thereupon he again sat down, and began to question me about what his enemies the Tuppin Ikins and the Portuguese were doing. And he asked further, why I had wanted to fire at them in the district of Brikioka, for he had been informed, that I had served there against them as a gunner. Then I said that the Portuguese had stationed me there and that I was obliged so to do. Upon which he said that I also was a Portuguese, and he spoke of the Frenchman who had seen me as his son, and said, that he who had seen me had stated, that I could not speak with him, and that I was a genuine Portuguese. Then I said, "Yes it is true, I have been so long out of my country that I have forgotten my language." Thereupon he observed, that he had already helped to capture and eat five Portuguese, who had all said that they were Frenchmen, and yet had lied. So that I gave up all hopes of life and resigned myself to God's will; for I heard nothing else from all of them, but that I should die. Then he again began to ask what the Portuguese said of him, they must surely be in terrible fear of him. I said: "Yes," they know much to tell of thee, how thou art wont to wage great war against them, but now they have fortified Brikioka more strongly. "Yes," he said, and therefore he

    Nothing can exceed its ugliness except its uncleanliness: "the rume runneth out of the hole that they have in their lips," says Knivett with disgust.

  1. See Part 2, chap. xv, called Mattepin. This is the wampum of the New England Redskins", also used by the Bube people of Fernando Po off the west coast of Africa. Every where it is made of chipped snail-shells, achatinæ and other species. The Tupins also wore teeth necklaces (Aiucará) taken from monkeys, ferocious beasts or human foes; the spoils of the latter could not be borne unless duly won, and for every new victim a tooth was added.