The Brazilian traveller will be surprised to find
the coronals of feathers, the Kennitare (Acangatara) of the Tupi-
Guarani race, which one always associates with the New World. The
skull-caps of plaited and blackened palm leaf, though common in
the interior, are here rare; an imitation is produced by tressing
the hair longitudinally from occiput to sinciput, making the head
a system of ridges, divided by scalp-lines, and a fan-shaped tuft
of scarlet-stained palm frond surmounts the poll. I noticed a
fashion of crinal decoration quite new to me.
A few hairs, either from the temples, the sides or the back of
the head, are lengthened with tree-fibres, and threaded with red
and white pound-beads, so called by Europeans because the lb.
fetches a dollar. These decorations fall upon the breast or back;
the same is done to the thin beard, which sprouts tufty from both
rami of the chin, as in the purely nervous temperament of Europe;
and doubtless the mustachios, if the latter were not mostly
wanting, would be similarly treated. Whatever absurdity in hair
may be demanded by the trichotomists and philopogons of Europe, I
can at once supply it to any extent from Africa--gratis.
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