Madame Pfeiffer describes the Puri Indians as even uglier than the
negroes. Their complexion is a light bronze; they are stunted in
stature, well-knit, and about the middle size. Their features are broad
and somewhat compressed; their hair is thick, long, and of a coal-black
colour. The men wear it hanging straight down; the women, in plaits
fastened to the back of the head, and sometimes falling loosely down
about their persons. Their forehead is broad and low, and the nose
somewhat flattened; the eyes are long and narrow, almost like those of
the Chinese; and the mouth is large, with rather thick lips. To enhance
the effect of these various charms, the countenance bears a peculiar look
of stupidity, which may be attributed perhaps to the way in which the
mouth is kept always open. Women, as well as males, are generally
tattooed of a reddish or blue colour, round the mouth, moustachio-wise.
Both sexes are addicted to smoking, and look upon brandy as the _summum
bonum_ of human life.

The Indians, ugly as they were, gave Madame Pfeiffer a hospitable
welcome. After an evening meal, in which roasted monkey and parrot were
the chief dishes, they performed one of their characteristic dances. A
quantity of wood was heaped up into a funeral pile, and set on fire; the
men then danced around it in a ring. They threw their bodies from side
to side with much awkwardness, but always moving the head forward in a
straight line. The women then joined in, forming at a short distance
behind the men, and imitating all their movements. A horrible noise
arose; this was intended for a song, the singers at the same time
distorting their features frightfully. One of them performed on a kind
of stringed instrument, made out of the stem of a cabbage-palm, and about
two feet, or two feet and a half, in length. A hole was cut in it
slantwise, and six fibres of the stem were kept up in an elevated