Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-06-23


trepid Youth.
Prom the New York SUM-
There were ten human heads dangling
on the top of ebony sticks placed about
a bedroom in Moore's Hotel in Fulton
Street, Brooklyn, last night, and sick.
ly odor of tropical plant peryaded the
room. Ernest Morris, the Indiana boy
naturalist, who is twenty years old, sat
in tattered suit at small table. An
attendant, who introduced the reporter,
removed from each head white cloth,
and exposed the grim, tattooed faces OF
mep and women. They have been pre-
served like life from six months to over
two or three years. The teeth were
gone, the eyes had been pulled out, and
in their stead were sockets filled with
balls of black wax, but the hair hung as
natural as on the living human head.
"These heads" explained Mr.. Morris,
belonged TO South American Indians,
and were preserved by the Mundurucu
nation as our native Indian preserves
scalps among their trophies of war.
They are the first that have ever been
brought to this country, and the first,
believe, that were ever taken from
South America, except three which were
picked up by traders from a civilized
tribe of Indians. Two of these were
taken to France and one TO England. /
returned on Sunday from my second trip
TO the Brazils, and have in these heads
my proof that penetrated a region in
the south of Brazil where the face of a
white man had not been seen before.
The Rio Tapajos, which is tributary
to the Amazon, is well known. II has
for its tributaries the Rio San Manuel,
the Rio Juenna, and the Rio Corruru.
Prof. Hart never went above Itainba, on
the Rio Tapajos, and VIXEN got there
l was warned to stop. There were
twenty-three falls to ascend, and was
told that the region was wild, the tribes
of Indians savage, and the climate al
most fatal to the white man, and no
trade winds swept up the Tapajos, as
on the Amazon.
81 got Mundurucu boy and a boat
and l determined to see the country
which no naturalist had ever seen. l
passed up the falls and went up the Rio
Curruru, a journey of six days. Then
leaving my boat, started with my boy
across the campos TO look up these wild
tribes. The country through which We
went was wild waste of prairie, with
here and there islands of jungles, rich
in tropical foliage. After we had pro-
ceeded for two days and half, living
on monkeys, parrots and macaws, suf-
fering every thing from the bites of the
swarms OF insects, we saw signs of the
savage tribes. was proceeding ahead
anu prospecting, when suddenly heard
a cackle in the bushes, and saw six naked
savages with their bows drawn and their |
white pointed arrows aimed AT my body. |
My heart leaped, and shrieked out in |
the language my guide had taught me,
Don't shoot friend, a brother | at |
once approached them with the gew-
gaws, of which l had stock, and l |
bought their bows for knife and few |
pocket mirrors. They conducted me |
into their village, but before the other |
savages welcomed me they sent me out |
before they reached me. These were
very offensive, but l was told that if | |
did not eat them the chief would not
permit me to come to the village. l. ate,
but it was forced meal | am told
that this food, which is made up in
quantity and kept in cakes, can be
ten miles of, but do not be-
lieve this.
al discovered that there were about
two thousand and three hundred of these
They have no employ
ment, and they seem to live to make
war on the five tribes about them, which
lnhabii the country between the San
Manuel and the Juenna. Only one of
these tribes, so far as could learn, are
These eat the brains of
their enemies. The Mundurucus are
man of lar1a -tat,,r,a ,t,l..- La. Ill. L