“ BOTOCUDOS (from Port. botoque, a plug, in allusion to the wooden disks or plugs worn in their lips and ears) , the foreign name for a tribe of South American Indians of eastern Brazil, also known as the Aimores or Aimbores. They appear to have no collective tribal name for themselves. Some are called Nac-nanuk or Nac-poruk, “sons of the soil.” The name Botocudos cannot be traced much farther back than the writings of Prince Maximilian von Neuwied (Reise nach Bresilien, Frankfort-on-Main, 1820) . ”

“ The Botocudos are nomads, wandering naked in the woods and living on forest products. They are below the medium height, but broad-shouldered and remarkable for the muscular development and depth of their chests. ”

“ The operation for preparing the lip begins often as early as the eighth year, when an initial boring is made by a hard pointed stick, and gradually extended by the insertion of larger and larger disks or plugs, sometimes at last as much as 3 in. in diameter. Notwithstanding the lightness of the wood the tembeitera weighs down the lip, which at first sticks out horizontally and at last becomes a mere ring of skin around the wood. Ear-plugs are also worn, of such size as to distend the lobe down to the shoulders. ”