Talk:The Tucandeira

ONCERNING his story in this issue a word from Arthur O. Friel:

Brooklyn. The test of the tucandeira which the American hero of this tale has to undergo is quite wide-spread among the tribes of the southern rivers tributary to the Amazon. Its details differ with different tribes, but its essentials are the same—the proving of manhood by enduring the torments of these huge ants, which have been kept for a time in fiber cylinders or hollow palm-logs, through which the victim has to pass his arms. Sometimes he also has to go to each hut and do a sort of clog-dance while being bitten, but I have dispensed with that in this instance as being unnecessary and also detracting somewhat from the dignity of the white man.—.