STRANGE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 18 August 1922, Page 4

STRANGE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.

There stepped ashore from the :U-lauza at Southampton lately a jrown-skinned man .scarcely recognisihle as an Englishman. He was Mr i. '. Glass, a missionary of the Evangelical Union of South America. Thirty years' work in Brazil is his record, and lie has travelled over 25,000 miles in the vast inland forests of that country, most of the time among the 400 tribes of natives about whom little is known. His most recent journey was one of 5000 miles.' a thousand of- which were covered iii -a two months' journey down the. river Araguaya, in a dug-out eance. only two white men being seen the whole time. Mr Glass says that the Araguaya is one of the most magnificent rivers. It flows between rich pasture, lands and land believed to be rich in mineral wealth. Its fish form the ■staple food of the Carajas, a tribe who do their fishing with bow and arrow. To wing the arrows they keep tame macaws, egrets and . other goregous -birds about their villages, plucking feathers from them as required. He found the Carajas full of curiosity at seeing a white .man for the first time, alone and unarmed. He found them most kindly disposed. They go quite naked, and they paint themselves with bright vegetable colors.

They are totally devoid of any religion or idolatry,* and have no intoxicants. Family hie is very highly developed among them. It survives oven the strain of the removal of their homes to the trees every rainy season. "When I wanted to explain what a locomotive was to them," he said, "I had to describe it as a horse of iron with a belly of fire —the only description which had any meaning to them." One custom of' the Carajas which Mr Glass thinks would prevent their intermixing with whites is the infliction on themselves of frightful facial disfigurements. Physically, they are amazingly fine. It is estimated that half a million of them have never heard of Christianitv.

"Nino-tenths of Brazil are untrodden by white men," said Mr Glass, "and it offers the most wonderful opportunities of any country. The English are the only people who are developing the immense mineral wealth of Brazil. Most of the railways, flour and cotton mills and banks are British. An Englishman commands a great deal of respect. I don't think any young man who is prepared to rough it, and keep straight, can help succeeding." Mr Glass is a widower. He brought his six children with him. He will stay in England a year before going back to the Amazon.