. th it, beating timewith his right foot. Rather walking than dancing,he advanced slowly, with his body bent forwards,round the pot, towards which his eyes were con-stantly turned. The dance, the measure of whichwas in triple time, was accompanied by him witha low monotonous singing, which was more stronglymarked when he stamped with his foot. Theoftener the song was repeated, the more solemnand animated was the expression of his voice andfeatures. All the rest stood motionless round thepot, stared at him without speaking, and only n
. th it, beating timewith his right foot. Rather walking than dancing,he advanced slowly, with his body bent forwards,round the pot, towards which his eyes were con-stantly turned. The dance, the measure of whichwas in triple time, was accompanied by him witha low monotonous singing, which was more stronglymarked when he stamped with his foot. Theoftener the song was repeated, the more solemnand animated was the expression of his voice andfeatures. All the rest stood motionless round thepot, stared at him without speaking, and only nowand then, when the words of the dancer, whichseemed to be extempore, moved them, they brokeout into immoderate cries. After this measuredcircular dance, by which, probably, it was intendedto conjure and keep off evil spirits, the leader ap-proached the pot, took from the hand of his neigh-bour the drinking vessel which he held ready, » We did not find any traces among the Indians of theoracles of the Maraca, mentioned in the accounts of TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 235 gravely dipped it into the pot, and took a sip. Therattling of the gringcrina, and the monotonoussinging began again ; the leader then half emptiedthe cup, and presented it to the others ; every onethen helped himself at pleasure out of the pot, andthe dance and the monotonous music became ge-neral, and more and more noisy the longer thecup went round. We, too, had a full cuja pre-sented to us, and though filled with disgust, wewere obliged to follow the advice of our guide toempty it, in order not to give the Indians any rea-son for distrust. The beverage resembles in tasteour malt liquor, and when taken in a large quan-tity is intoxicating, an effect which was but toomanifest towards the epd of the feast, by theirleaping and noisy singing of Hi// ha ha/ Hopeshad been given us that we should see on this oc-casion the dances of the Coroados; but towardsevening, after their stomachs and heads were ful
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