Women, as well as males, are generally
tattooed of a reddish or blue colour, round the mouth, moustachio-wise.
Both sexes are addicted to smoking, and look upon brandy as the _summum
bonum_ of human life.
The Indians, ugly as they were, gave Madame Pfeiffer a hospitable
welcome. After an evening meal, in which roasted monkey and parrot were
the chief dishes, they performed one of their characteristic dances. A
quantity of wood was heaped up into a funeral pile, and set on fire; the
men then danced around it in a ring. They threw their bodies from side
to side with much awkwardness, but always moving the head forward in a
straight line. The women then joined in, forming at a short distance
behind the men, and imitating all their movements. A horrible noise
arose; this was intended for a song, the singers at the same time
distorting their features frightfully. One of them performed on a kind
of stringed instrument, made out of the stem of a cabbage-palm, and about
two feet, or two feet and a half, in length. A hole was cut in it
slantwise, and six fibres of the stem were kept up in an elevated
position at each end, by means of a small bridge. The fingers played
upon these as upon a guitar, drawing forth a very low, harsh, and
disagreeable tone. The dance, thus pleasingly accompanied, was called
the Dance of Peace and Joy.
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