Tupinamba Indians fishing in Brazil

Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University

Tupinamba Indians fishing in Brazil. Of the Indians Magellan’s expedition met in Rio de Janero, Anttonio Pigafetta noted: “For a fishhook or a knife they would offer five or six chickens; a part of geese for a comb; for a small mirror or a pair of sessors, enough fish to fee ten people; for a bell or a ribbon, a basket of [sweet] potatoes that taste like nuts or turnips. For the king in a deck of playing cards such as we use in Italy, they gave six chickens, thinking that they had got the better of me.

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Dinesh ^club

Entering the beautiful harbor, the five ships passed the imposing rocky mass of Pao de Acucar en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain on their port side, dropping anchor in seven fathoms either off Falmingo Beach or in Batofogo Inlet at the foot of Corcovado Peak. A Swarm of naked natives in cahoes paddled eagerly out to greet them. They probably were Tamojos, speakers of Tupi (one of the Ge family of Amerindian languages). Antonio Pigafetta, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Pigafetta indefatigable supernumerary who became the expeditions principal chronicler, now had his first opportunity to indulge his interest in exotic places and places. Manners, customs, and beliefs hel a particular fascination for him, and with obvious delight and unabashed credulity he recorded all that he saw and heart. . . .

”They are not Christians,” wrote Pigafetta, “nor do they seem to worship anything.” They lived “ . . .in harmony with nature, more like beasts than anything else.” Their communical houses, called ‘boii,’ could accommodate one hundred persons. Inside,, ‘. . . the noise they make is enormous.” For sleeping, cotton hammocks were suspended above the longhouse floor by fastening the ends to tall stakes planted in the ground. The cooking firs were lit directly beneath the hammocks.

The men keep; their hair shaved and pluck out their beards; they decorate themselves with the plumage of parrots, displaying around the anus large ornaments made with the longest feathers. They look most ridiculous. The colour of these people is not completely black, but olive tones. Men and women are completely devoid of bodily hair. They walk about nude, with their nether regions uncovered. ~ page 126/127

3 years ago. Edited 2 years ago.

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