Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/200

IN EASTERN BRAZIL. 81

And the old women in the several huts who had also tormented me cruelly, tearing me, beating, and threatening to eat me, these same then called me Scheraeire," that is, "my son-thou wilt surely not let us die. When we thus treated thee, we thought thou wert one of the Portuguese, whom we so much hate. We have also had several Portuguese and eaten them, but their God was not so angry as thine. By this we now see, that thou canst not be a portuguese."

Thus they left me alone for a while, not knowing quite what to make of me, whether I was a Portuguese or a French man. They said I had a red beard like a Frenchman, and though they had also seen Portuguese, yet these had all black beards.

After this panic, when one of my masters recovered again, they spoke no more to me about eating, but guarded me just as strictly, not allowing me to go about by myself.

CAPUT XXXV. How the Frenchman who had commanded the savages to eat me, returned, and I begged him to take me with him. But my masters would not part with me.

Now the Frenchman Karwattu Ware (of whom I have before said, that he went away from me with the savages, who accompanied him, and who were friends of the French men) had remained there to collect the goods which the savages produce, namely (red) pepper, and a kind of feathers which they also have.

But when he was travelling back to that part of the country where the ships arrived, called Mungu Wappe and

1 Shé (in Portuguese written Xé) is "I" or "my" and Táyra, Son, which in composition becomes She-r-áyra. G

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