On Seeing Us, They Seized Each Other By The Hand,
Formed A Circle, And Threw Themselves On The Ground, With Their Heads
And Faces Covered.
Unwilling to add to their evident terror, we only
remained a few minutes, during which time the children frequently peeped
at us from beneath their clothes; indeed, they seemed more surprised
than alarmed:
The mothers kept uttering a low and mournful cry, as if
entreating mercy. In the camp were several spears, or rather lances, as
they were much too ponderous to be thrown by the arm; these were jagged:
there were also some elamongs (shields), clubs, chisels, and several
workbags filled with every thing necessary for the toilet of a native
belle; namely, paint and feathers, necklaces of teeth, and nets for the
head, with thread formed of the sinews of the opossum's tail for making
their cloaks. The men belonging to the camp were heard shouting at no
great distance: their affection for their families was not, however,
sufficiently powerful to induce them to attempt their rescue from the
hands of such unfabulous centaurs, as we doubtless appeared to them. The
boats met with no interruption, the river continuing a fine and even
stream, running at the rate of a mile and a half per hour: it was in
places very narrow, and our astonishment would have been excited that
such a channel should contain the powerful body of water falling into
it, if we had not found its medium depth to be from twenty to thirty
feet.
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