It
may, perhaps, seem singular that the ancient lords of the country,
Tupinambas and Tupiniquis, should find their principal occupation in
making objects for the Catholic religion. But, after all, why not?
These Indians are no longer the Indians of days gone by. Instead of
being clothed in the national fashion, with a frontlet of macaw
feathers, bow, and blow-tube, have they not adopted the American
costume of white cotton trousers, and a cotton poncho woven by their
wives, who have become thorough adepts in its manufacture?
San Pablo d'Oliven?a, a town of some importance, has not less than
two thousand inhabitants, derived from all the neighboring tribes. At
present the capital of the Upper Amazon, it began as a simple
Mission, founded by the Portuguese Carmelites about 1692, and
afterward acquired by the Jesuit missionaries.
From the beginning it has been the country of the Omaguas, whose name
means "flat-heads," and is derived from the barbarous custom of the
native mothers of squeezing the heads of their newborn children
between two plates, so as to give them an oblong skull, which was
then the fashion.
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