1673 Engraving of Two Tapuya Fighters Squaring Off
DESCRIPTION
An engraved scene of two Tapuya fighters squaring off appears in this excerpted leaf from the Brazil section of the 1673 German edition of Arnoldus Montanus's account of the Americas.
In the center of the scene, two men square off with fists raised, each crowned with a towering plume of feathers whose long locks stream out behind. Both wear woven collars and bands on the upper arm, short skirts, and bulky wrappings around the legs with leafy branches tied at their backs. Between them in the distance, a man in a plumed headdress stands with one hand on his hip among a group of onlookers, and a figure lies sprawled on the ground nearby. Spearmen with shields line the field at either side, and a long thatched house and palms stand at right.
The scene follows the text below, part of the book's account of the Tapuya, which tells how they gathered each summer for three days of fighting. The fighters are said to have hung themselves with feathers, bound tree bark around their feet in place of boots, smeared their heads with honey, and braided their hair so that one lock flew out over the neck. A great plume rose above the forehead and a woven collar of feathers lay around the neck, while the wings of a bird the text calls the kohituh were worn on the arms and a green branch over the back like the ones seen here. If two fighters bore a grudge, the sport turned serious, and several are said to have often been left dead on the field. The victor mocked the loser for his womanish cowardice with strange leaps and won his wives and children as a prize. The same page describes the funeral customs of the Tapuya, in which the priests cut up the dead, the old women roasted the pieces, and the bones were later pounded, mixed with water, and drunk. The reverse tells how the century-old King Jandovi, refused the daughter of Prince Jucker, challenged Jucker's men to a fighting match. As the two sides faced each other, Jandovi's women are said to have rushed in and seized Jucker's fighters by the hair, leaving them helpless as many were killed and the daughter carried off. The reverse names Johan Rabe of Waldeck, who spent four years among the Tapuya on Count Maurits's orders to learn their language, as the witness to all of this.
Arnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683), a Dutch minister and schoolmaster, compiled De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld from earlier chronicles and travel accounts without ever crossing the Atlantic. The Amsterdam publisher Jacob van Meurs issued it in 1671 with a wealth of engravings. John Ogilby's English adaptation followed the same year, and Die Unbekante Neue Welt, the German edition attributed to Olfert Dapper, followed in 1673. Its illustrations were drawn by artists who had mostly never seen the Americas either. They mix reported detail with European invention, and they shaped how a generation of European readers pictured the New World.
CONDITION
1200 W. 35th Street #425 Chicago, IL 60609 | P: (312) 496 - 3622