Note 134 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Footnote 134
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A. Thouar, Explorations dans l'Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1891), pp. 48 sq.; G. Kurze, "Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer," Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xxiii. (1905) pp. 26 sq. The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the Lenguas. As the latter account is based on the reports of the Rev. W.B. Grubb, a missionary who has been settled among the Indians of the Chaco for many years and is our principal authority on them, I assume that the ascription of the custom to the Lenguas is correct. However, in the volume on the Lengua Indians, which has been edited from Mr. Grubb's papers (An Unknown People in an Unknown Land, London, 1911), these details as to the seclusion of girls at puberty are not mentioned, though what seems to be the final ceremony is described (op. cit. pp. 177 sq.). From the description we learn that boys dressed in ostrich feathers and wearing masks circle round the girl with shrill cries, but are repelled by the women.