1) Pereira constructs a comic horror film in which sixteenth-century intertexts are read as current events in an analogy of colonialism with global capitalism. This film is Pereira's response to Brazil's building of the Trans-Amazon Highway, in the course of which contact with indigenous communities was made that threatened them with near extinction. The current destruction of habitat and native populations recalled to Pereira the traumas of colonization. . . . The ingesting of foreign invaders thus becomes for Pereira a metaphor for indigenous resistance to global capitalism, the most recent form of economic colonization. (Virginia Higginbotham 278)

2) This movie opened my eyes to cannibalism. Going into the film, I expected the cannibals to be eating people at almost every meal, but as we see in the film, this is not the case. The natives are rarely shown eating people. The most memorable scene for me occurs at the end of the movie when the Frenchman's wife is eating the bloody meat with her hands. There is a close-up shot of her face as her fingers, red from all the blood, are putting the meat from the Frenchman's neck into her mouth. I remember expecting the shot to cut away after a few seconds, but it remains there for three or four seconds longer. Her eyes are piercing as she stares at the camera, bringing a strong sense of reality to the practice of cannibalism. Up until this point in the movie, I did not feel as though cannibalism was portrayed in a way that made the viewer understand the reality of the act of eating other humans. This shot also allowed me to draw the conclusion that the Frenchman's wife never really loved him to the extent to which I felt was shown in their interaction up until the final scenes. In her eyes, I saw no remorse, but strictly satisfaction. Parts of this film portrayed their relationship as loving and caring; this shot of her completely discredited that all for me and left me thinking that she never really cared deeply for him at all. (Catherine Willard, Lehigh University)

3) Brazil's history records the dramatic struggle for survival against natural elements, for independence from foreign domination, and for the creation of a viable national state. (E. Bradford Burns 2)

4) One aspect that surprised me was how the complete nudity in the film did not bother me. It felt comforting after a while, actually. Clothes in this film actually felt quite confining. (Andrea Espinoza, Lehigh University)

5) The narrative of How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman harks back to a sub-genre of adventure or travel literature called the "captive witness." The captive witness differs from other witnesses to alien cultures in that he is to die at a prescribed time, and therefore his captors offer him insight into their culture, confident that he will carry such secrets only to the grave. (Richard Peña 101)

6) The fact that Pereira dos Santos made the part toward the end sexual rather than scary was interesting, and I especially liked the moment when Seboipebe kissed the Frenchman to show where they would cut him limb from limb. As she told him of the impending torture, the audience is calmed by the fact that the Frenchman is taking it so well, and we almost come round to the idea that cannibalism isn't so bad.... (Haydn Galloway, Lehigh University)

7) Both films [How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1971) and Hans Staden (1999)] center on a European protagonist but also provide insight into the political economy of early colonial Brazil and on the customs of the Tupi people, particularly the practice of cannibalism. (Darien J. Davis 696)

8) The second impact of film is emotional. The very fact that the viewer is actually witnessing the past, seeing it replayed in a dark room on a bright screen on which his eyes are forced to focus, elicits an emotional response, that is, an involvement. Appropriate music, color, shadows, light, and skillful camera work heighten that response. (E. Bradford Burns 13)

9) The government broadly financed historical films, but it wanted the history to be within official parameters—the hero, the father of the country, all those things we have been told since elementary school. I made How Tasty Was my Little Frenchman, which does not correspond in any way to the official vision of history, under these circumstances. The film was not even considered to be historical, but rather purely fictional, as if official history were not fiction. (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, qtd in Johnson 227)

10) Whites do not like to eat crocodiles or monkeys even though these are tasty. But if they had fewer turtles and pigs they certainly would eat them. For Hunger hurts. . . . When I kill an enemy it is better to eat them than to let them rot. . . . Death itself is worse than being eaten. If I am killed, it would of no concern to me whether or not [my enemies] Omagua ate me. In fact I know no game that tastes better . . . although you whites are too sour. (Miranya Chief, qtd in Hemming 221)

11) The first sexual tension seen between Seboipebe and the Frenchman is when she is watching him sleep and then bites him. Is this foreshadowing that she will indeed eat him eventually despite their seemingly blossoming relationship? Her actions at the end can be categorized as treacherous: shooting him with an arrow and filling his boat with water so he is unable to escape. The question I pose is, does she do this because she is attempting to save his “honor,” or is she showing loyalty to her people and their traditions. Remembering their first intimate interaction -- her biting him, I believe her feelings were insincere and purely sexual. Especially because her main complaint about him and proof that he is not French is because he would not sleep with her the first night he was in the community. While I do not think her sexuality is played up in the movie, it definitely falls under the clichés of native/European interaction. (Morgan Christopher, Lehigh University)

12) The lost tribes left a legacy of attitudes, foods, artifacts, behavior, words and place names that help give modern day Brazil its peculiarly attractive national character. (John Hemming 481)

13) The majority of the film focuses on the eight-month period that the Frenchman has before his death. He becomes part of the native culture, takes a wife and acts as an advisor (to an extent) to the chief of the tribe. The Frenchman hoped that he could save his own life by submerging himself into their world. This idea is maliciously destroyed by the pinnacle moment when his own wife Seboipebe shoots him down and captures him. This was perhaps the most surprising scene for me. I felt that perhaps she had formed a stronger relationship with him. Instead, her actions support the idea that cultural ties are too strong to break. (Alexandra Neumann, Lehigh University)

14) The newly arrived Portuguese also depended on the Indians as the labor force in the growing colony. The Portuguese, for their part, revealed a reluctance to engage in common labor and a persistence in forcing others to do it for them. . . . They [the Indians] were the instruments by which wealth was created in the new colony and as such indispensable to the European. (E. Bradford Burns 45)

15) The most striking aspect of this film occurred near the end, when Seboipebe and the Frenchman were discussing the Frenchman's imminent death. However, that is not that element that is surprising, but the manner in which it was discussed. There was a lighthearted air which afforded a more "creepy" ambiance to this scene than the content itself (cannibalism and murder). Seboipebe seems to have been a loyal wife to the Frenchman throughout his stay, but her fickle nature is so blatantly obvious by the end that her love for the Frenchman is questionable at best. She explains his impending death process jubilantly, as if it were celebratory (which it is, in a way, for the tribe), but she thereby dismisses their connection as a love item in doing so -- it seems that she has completely severed all ties with the Frenchman and reverted back to her own cultural connections against him. This comes to a climax when she shoots him and floods his canoe, prohibiting him from leaving. Was she ever in love with him, or are her connections to her own tribe so strong as to completely nullify any bond she ever had with the Frenchman just because she knows of her tribe's decree to kill him? (Brian Cohen, Lehigh University)

16) The narrative of the film concentrates on the figure of the Frenchman in a way that is once allied to the point of view of the tribespeople and also separate from them: the camera at several points declares its independence from the point of view of any character. (Richard Peña 103)

17) As in Cabeza de Vaca, and to some extent, La otra conquista, the natives in this film had much more agency as it is they, rather than European conquistadors, who have a dominant presence on screen and do the major "converting." I was really surprised at how quickly the captured Frenchman embraced the native culture even though he knew that they were planning to eat him in the end. Though the Frenchman had ample time to escape during the eight months leading up to his eventual death (which I believe was his original plan when he first asked the trader to help him escape), as the film progressed, it seemed as if a part of him did not want to leave the native people (or at least Seboipebe) and their way of life behind. As he became more "native," it seems that the Frenchman saw himself as a part of the tribe--he worked with the women and children, attacked the Portuguese enemies with the men, gathered wood with Seboipebe, etc.--and let his guard down as he began to embrace the native way of life. I feel like he didn't believe that they would kill him in the end, which is why he was able to talk about the subject matter so freely with Seboipebe and look at his impending death in a lighthearted, almost romanticized/exoticized manner. (Krystal Kaai, Lehigh University)

18) The idea of a popular cinema was born in the period I was speaking of, when amateurs and independent producers had a common program of struggle for the affirmation of Brazilian cinema. In this context, I proposed the necessity for the film—in and of itself—to create conditions for effectively reaching the public and for commercial success in the Brazilian market. The idea is not merely for the film to be marketable, but rather to create a situation in which we could affirm the principles of Brazilian popular culture through cinema. Because popular culture is different from other superficial, elitist cultural forms that follow antiquated, colonized models. My idea was also to defend popular political ideas—the legitimate claims of the people—which have been until now hidden from view and which our films should in some way reflect. (Nelson Periera dos Santos, qtd in Johnson 228)

19) I was quite disappointed by the distinct lack of people-eating. It was as if Cunhambebe was preparing an excellent minced thigh stew, but forgot to add salt. That was the entire movie. I was hoping for at least a little skull-smashing and some of the Frenchman's body parts being passed around. I'm not intentionally trying to sound macabre, but I would think everyone rightly expects a little gore from a movie about c a n n i b a l i s m. Tupa forbid it get a little exciting. I found it similar in pace to Aguirre (and my complete confusion as to what was going on). I found Aguirre redeemed by its eerily fitting music and surprisingly good camera work, but most of all by Klaus Kinski, possibly one of the craziest actors ever. My Little Frenchmen, however, just had a lot of . . . skin. And none of it eaten. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for another white-guy assimilation into aboriginal culture, or maybe that's really all it was. Only two months of completely nude natives in this course, and I'm already desensitized to it. Crap. (Adam Kaufman, Lehigh University)

20) Who, then, was the New Man of the New World to sixteenth-century Spain and to Europe? He was a cannibal, a Carib. And what was the newly discovered fourth part of the world? It was a world of cannibals. (Michael Palencia-Roth 53)

21) Brazilians would go back to this powerful image [cannibalism] that so forcefully marked their past identity, reinventing and appropriating it to explore and address contemporary issues that corroded their society. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 14)

22) Yet Pereira dos Santos seeks more than a portrayal of historic customs: he demonstrates the indigenous cannibalistic foundation of Brazilian culture while simultaneously undermining the supposed nobility of European society in the Americas. (Theodore Robert Young 86)

23) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman means to be a meditation on the past and perhaps the future of Brazil -- ironic, often comic -- and it mixes fictional drama with allusions to economic, social and religious history. (Roger Greenspun)

24) For Lestringant, the subsequent degradation in European writings of the humanity of cannibals on the Brazilian shore is paralleled by an increasing inability to make sense of the anthropophagic act as it evolves from sacrificial ritual into merely a response to the poverty of material circumstances or exigencies of survival -- a hunger cannibalism de-fleshed of its cultural meanings. (Neil L. Whitehead 733)

25) Jaundiced cultural allegory dressed up as anthropological re-creation, Nelson Periera dos Santos’s How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman slyly links Montaigne's who-are-the-real-savages query to Brazil’s military dictatorship. (Fernando F. Croce)

26) The film tackled questions previous films have asked regarding identity, native sympathy, and cultural adaptation. Cabeza de Vaca and La Otra Conquista addressed these issues with their main characters both in a religious/spiritual manner. While How Tasty depicted religious/spiritual imagery in the natives, the reason for the cannibalism stems from a broken social/legal contract. The Frenchman must participate in the ritual, all the while following a strict legal/social code and developing the political/business relationships between the Europeans and Natives (through wood and gunpowder). The drama that ensues from the nine-month sanctuary only masks the inner politica developing. Near the end he becomes oblivious to the European world and its activities. The corruption that seems to grow is ignored. If ignorance is bliss, then this Frenchman is lucky . . . and tasty. (Jose Berrios, Lehigh University)

27) Cinema Novo is a group of auteurs who share a collective practice in cultural politics. In relation to principles of filmmaking, each director has his own isolated dominion and there is thus no common esthetic position among us. Each one has total investigative and creative freedom. (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, qtd in Johnson 229)

28) I thought this film was hilarious. (Andrea Espinoza, Lehigh University)

29) Following the ultraconservative crackdown in 1968, the political implications of Pereira dos Santos's adaptations became more oblique, almost allegorical. There was a certain tension or ambiguity in his choice of projects: the Brazilian government was less likely to censor his adaptations of classics (particularly when they were aimed at an intellectual or art movie audience), and it was even able to acquire a liberal aura or a degree of cultural capital not only by allowing them to be produced, but also by providing (in some cases) financial backing. At the same time, Pereira dos Santos was able to use respected literature to comment on government policies. (Darlene Sadlier 191)

30) The lighthearted depiction of the Frenchman's death is a stark contrast to the actual death scene. Though the ritual at the end unfolds in the exact manner that Seboipebe previously described, there is nothing playful or romantic about this final scene. Despite maintaining his composure throughout most of the ritual, in the final moments before his death -- as the natives are taunting him and the people he has learned to trust most become the bearers of his death -- the Frenchman realizes the gravity of his situation and frantically states, "my friends will come to revenge me" (which is exactly what Seboipebe had told him to say) and then veers off script, angrily saying, "No one of yours will remain upon this land." By comparing these two scenes, therefore, one can see the difference between what originally appears to be the Frenchman's lighthearted acceptance of his fate and his latter resistance to this fate after his disillusionment with the native culture has worn off. (Krystal Kaai, Lehigh University)

31) The act of cannibalism holds a symbolic significance in Brazilian intellectual culture, dating to the Brazilian modernist creative movement of the 1920s and Oswaldo de Andrade’s 1928 essay, the "Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibal Manifesto)." De Andrade’s "Manifesto" recasts cannibalism as an ideal wherein modern Brazilians assume the traditions of their largely exterminated Amerindian forebears and seek to "consume" their enemies and fellows not solely as an act of violence but with the goal of absorbing the other’s personal and communal power, which in the seventeenth century could be that of a warrior and in the twentieth could be cultural production or intellectual distinction, and in both centuries is a tacit preconceived dominant status. (Philip Cartelli)

32) The nudity seemed so commonplace and pervasive that it did not phase me. After 15 minutes, being naked seemed normal, and I did not think it changed my opinion of the Indians or made them seem inferior. (Zachary Carter, Lehigh University)

33) It is in this light that we must see the film's final act of cannibalism as a gesture of defiance, a special kind of revolt. It represents the ultimate kind of assimilation: one that in the process of assimilation definitively transforms that which is being assimilated. The Frenchman does, finally, become part of the tribe, but in such a way that we no longer perceive him as a Frenchman. (Richard Peña 109)

34) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman . . . is saturated with symbolism and political statements at every turn. (Darien J. Davis 696)

35) I think the juxtaposition of comedy and the idea of cannibalism puts the audience at ease and some ways brings them round to the idea that cannibalism is just another part of life. In this sense, the film is similar to that of La otra conquista in which the director shows the gruesome human sacrifice to be almost beautiful, again putting the audience at ease. (Haydn Galloway, Lehigh University)

36) Today, for example, it is clearer than ever that the Brazilian Indian is an integral part of our history, but there are Marxist thinkers in Brazil who ignore the existence of Indian culture and its influence in the formation of our national culture. There are writers who say that the history of Brazil begins with the colony. There are other points of view that start with previous elements, with the question of “What is Brazil?” and “How is it formed?” But it’s always in this sense: Brazil is seen as a colony developing in a foreign land. According to that point of view, social history dates from 1500 on. First there are the Portuguese, then the black slaves, then European immigrants. The Indian disappears, he has nothing to offer, he’s no better than an animal in the jungle. (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, qtd in Johnson 232-33)

37) Jean sees the markers of his Otherness disappear as he is stripped of his European clothes and his hair is shaved in the Tupinamba fashion. For him, becoming Tupinamba is a seductive experience. His European compatriots betray him repeatedly, whereas the Tupinamba seemingly accept him as one of their own. (G. U. De Sousa 92)

38) The Tupinambas in effect cannot be blamed for their actions. Their cannibalistic rituals are simply a tradition, and the fact that they eat traitorous humans is honestly not so far off from modern society killing humans in an electric chair or slaughtering nearly every animal on the earth to consume them. This is a matter of societal acceptance; cannibalism is accepted in this culture, so who are we to judge them for it? At the same time, how might they regard our evident obsession with sex? It seems that as a cannibalistic culture is preparing to eat the Frenchman, he is the more absurd one in choosing to stick around just to have sex. After all, the cannibalism was imminent, so how foolish must the Frenchman have been to knowingly disregard his impending doom and instead have sex? (Brian Cohen, Lehigh University)

39) Pereira dos Santos's imagination was fired by newspaper accounts of the plight of the indigenous community in the northeast with which he had contact when making Vidas Secas. As a result of the country's attempt to bring "civilization" to the interior, an entire culture was on the verge of extinction. The situation harkened back to the first encounters between Europeans and Brazil's native inhabitants; in particular, dos Santos was reminded of one of the earliest colonial records describing the decimation by Portuguese troops of a tribe known as the Caetes, who had killed and eaten a shipwrecked Portuguese bishop. (Darlene Sadlier 58-59)

40) My final statement on this film is that this movie just didn't have enough guts. Upon reading Hans Staden's account of the tribe's cannibalistic ritual, I find it quite similar to the movie, up until the point where the actual feast takes place. I understand this is an extremely underground film and comes all the way from Brazil, so why not go all the way? This movie screams for more exploitation. I can deal with the boring plot and the meandering, shallow characters, but a movie whose climax ends with a zoom OUT of a man taking a blow to the head. Rip, off. Occasionally I'll forgive a film for even all of these grievances as long as I feel that something is beyond me, in my infinite wisdom. If the director manages to convey a sense of intelligence or some artsy, poetic message, even if it really isn't at all, I can walk away reflective, or at least neutral. But a film thats message is as unclear as its actors are nude deserves no pardons. (Adam Kaufman, Lehigh University)

41) The final shot of Sebiopepe, the zoom in to her face while she is eating the Frenchman . . . she eats him emotionlessly. Despite her warm relationship with him she recognizes that he is an enemy who must be destroyed. Destroyed, however, in such a way that he is not simply gotten rid of but rather incorporated into the tribal body. (Richard Peña 109)

42) How could this woman be so sexually and emotionally stimulated by a man to whom she describes exactly how he will be consumed (and how, specifically, she will consume him)?!?! And how can this man create such a realistic and emotionally infused team with this woman whom he knows will eat him?!?! The answer escapes me. (James "Alec" Murphy, Lehigh University)

43) This is not an anthropological study of Tupi, but Dos Santos contextualizes the cannibalism while exploring the savagery of rival European groups who were competing for souls and riches of Brazil in the sixteenth century. (Darien J. Davis 697)

44) The Frenchman was unable to break his bonds to his old culture, just as Seboipebe cannot throw away her culture for the life of a man she knew for a short time. This leads me to think that Seboipebe accepted her societal role as a temporary “wife” to captives like the Frenchman who were being prepared for the cannibalistic ritual. The final shot of Seboipebe’s piercing eyes shows her pride in her culture and her lack of remorse over the Frenchman's death (and subsequent consumption). Cannibalism is part of a lengthy, important tribal ritual, which starts with the Frenchman's apparent assimilation into the culture. At least by the end of the film he comes to understand, if not entirely accept, the Tupinamba way of life. (Courtney Brown, Lehigh University)

45) There is always a certain shame associated with presenting Brazil as a “mulatto” society. (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, qtd in Johnson 234)

46) Nelson Pereira dos Santos is widely considered to be the “Pope”—or “conscience,” in Glauber Rocha’s words—of Brazilian Cinema Novo. He has consistently been the gentle, guiding spirit behind this often tumultuous film movement, attempting to reconcile differences and lending his immense talents to filmmakers of all persuasions and generations. . . . Nelson Pereira dos Santros has become a kind of eminence gris, a generous presiding spirit of Cinema Novo. (Randal Johnson 225)

47) Pereira dos Santos's film goes beyond relativizing the figure of the cannibal. He presents a collage of voices, interspersed with quoted extracts from the rich colonial legacy of documents, letters, diaries, illustrations, that are used not only as ironic historical counterpoints to the events depicted, but go beyond circumstantially de-stabilizing the audience’s view to question the veracity of the reconstruction itself. The awkward eye of the camera that refuses to align itself with the narrating voice underscores this. The result is a constant displacement of the spectator's place while simultaneously questioning the concept of the hero who is nevertheless implicitly telling the story. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 20)

48) The hand-held camera work takes the viewer right into the action while still maintaining the fly-on-the wall detachment that characterizes much cinema verite filmmaking. Coupled with the comedic plot setup, the movie comes across as a sort of mutant National Geographic special missing John Forsythe as narrator. (Todd Konrad)

49) In one way or another, cannibals or reputed cannibals played a part in many of the initial negative experiences of the New World. (Michael Palencia-Roth 39)

50) To understand the Tupinamba's methodology behind cannibalism, their culture must first be understood. After reading Lestringant's perspective, the film made much more sense to me. Their reasons for keeping their victim around served much more of a purpose than simply torturing a future meal. As Lestringant suggests, "His active presence--he goes fishing and hunting, helps clear the forest and till the soil, participates wholeheartedly in festivities and lives lovingly with his spouse, who may even give him children--makes up for the loss previously suffered by the group. Thus, the community receives a fresh infusion of energy, and eventually regains its lost wholeness by ingesting the flesh of the victim, down to the most insignificant morsel" (62-63). He is not merely a sacrificial victim, but a conduit through which the loss of a member of the tribe can live on and, when the time is right, be avenged by. Simply eating this victim, however, would not suffice. The group must grieve and grow before it can move on. By accounting for the social and practical purpose of the lost tribesman, the victim serves a purpose before his death. Watching the film again with this context, the time before the victims sentence is to be carried out becomes much darker, yet much more purposeful. The power in the ritual of cannibalism becomes clear when the context of the Tupinamba's process is realized. (Alexander Vernak, Lehigh University)

51) The evolution of French relations with Island Caribs provided a context that allowed the cultivation of comparatively sympathetic images of these “cannibals” to compete with the ignoble savage canon derived from Columbus, Martier, and the Spanish chroniclers. Intense French ties with Tupinamba “cannibals,” which found reflection in the works of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century French authors, eased the transition to a literary relationship with the purportedly most infamous “man-eaters” of all, the Island Caribs. (Philip Boucher 132)

52) I was particularly struck by the final shots of the Frenchman’s wife slowly feasting on his flesh. In cinematic terms, this device of “breaking the fourth wall” is typically used to draw the viewers in and encourage them to personally relate to a given situation. To use this technique while something as horrific as inter-familial cannibalism takes place on the screen is chilling to say the least. Dos Santos is asking his viewers to relate to something that they have never even thought about doing, much less actually experienced. In this way the director forces the Tupinamba ritual into an uncomfortably personal space for the viewers; they cannot avoid the animalistic stare of the wife without fully turning away from the film itself. Indeed this last scene may serve as a fair representation of the entirety of the film; not once did I find myself completely relating to or feeling comfortable with anything going on in this movie. The subject matter throughout was so incongruous from anything I’ve experienced in my own life that I felt somewhat disconnected. As a political message on the treatment of the Other, however, I found the film a good bit more interesting. By inverting the typical colonial relationship of subjugation, Dos Santos gives imperialist nations a means by which to reexamine their own actions against weaker parties. (Eric Edgerton, Lehigh University)

53) Staden’s text and the film How Tasty Was My Frenchman seem to offer the opposite of the colonial experience. In these works, we see European culture not in a position of strength but struggling to assert its ideological dominance vis-à-vis Tupinamba ideology of conquest and assimilation of its Other through ritual cannibalism. (G. U. De Sousa 90)

54) Before reading Staden’s accounts, I tended to perceive cannibalism as a primitive practice associated with savage peoples who grossly preferred the taste of human flesh to that of other available food sources. Until watching the film and reading the historical documents, therefore, I did not realize how much of a cultural, and almost religious, aspect the Tupinambas attributed to cannibalism. . . . This elaborate “meal preparation” seemed really absurd to me as a Western viewer because the Tupinambas clearly were taking the notion of “playing with one’s food” to a whole new level. (Krystal Kaai, Lehigh University)

55) When his arguments questioning Tupinamba cannibalism are examined against what his sources actually say and against corroborative data, Arens’s revisionist thesis [that there was no cannibalism] fails to meet the basic criteria of adequate ethnohistoric interpretation. (Donald W. Forsyth 17)

56) The interesting thing was the way [the Frenchman] was killed when he spoke out the ritual phrase about his friends coming to avenge him. There was no hesitation just a quick blow to finish his life. And nobody seemed to have regrets about his death. Whether as a slave or as a meal, he had been just a part of a ritual. (Elena Zubenko, Lehigh University)

57) Pereira dos Santos consistently presents cannibalism as a contextually justified cultural process, but when it comes to the actual act, its shocking, exotic potential is exploited through the half-hidden suggestion of the final step: the audience only sees the eyes of the woman, Seboibepe, as she feasts on her husband. (Gordon 93)

58) Hence, from the beginning of the film we are confronted with an "official" version of conquest and the existence of other silenced "versions." The tension between narratives and understandings of events will be even more apparent once we enter the world of the cannibal. By constantly superimposing a multiplicity of discourses embedded within a "historical" reconstruction, the film succeeds in revealing and questioning the power relations implicit in the act of narrating from a literary point of view as well as from a cinematographic one. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 11)

59) He [the Frenchman] survives drowning only to be captured by the Tupinamba, a tribe at war with the Portugese conquerers and to whom, in the film’s deadpan reversal of prejudice, all Europeans look alike. (Fernando F. Croce)

60) Despite the various and sprinkled "good" components of the film, I still found there to be something seriously lacking in the execution. Perhaps its my modern Western perspective, but the filmmakers almost seem to make the behavior surrounding cannibalism into a comedic situation. Besides the last scene that seems to make talk of a cannibalistic ceremony into a flirtatious aphrodisiac between the Frenchman and his wife, the dialogue sometimes seems to be almost sketch-comedy worthy. It's extremely difficult to take a film seriously when a defining quote in the film is "It will be a nice present for my uncle. He hasn't tasted a Frenchman yet." (Carina Meleca, Lehigh University)

61) As [Seboipebe] prepares [the Frenchman] for the ritual of death, he clearly does not believe in his impending fate, choosing to have sex instead of fleeing. The director thus eroticizes the scene, fusing sexuality with the act of eating. (Theodore Robert Young 85)

62) [Pereira dos Santos] is a committed director, and all of his films have liberal or left-wing sources and are largely proletarian in theme. Many of his adaptations can be seen as responses to the turbulent decades when Brazil moved from an unstable leftist labor government to a right-wing military rule, and finally to a nascent redemocratization. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Pereira dos Santos used canonical literature as an indirect way of speaking about contemporary social problems. He chose safely historical texts, but the texts contained themes that spoke directly to his audiences. (Darlene Sadlier 190)

63) Cannibalism, brought to the exploitative fore in grindhouse staples like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox, is here as shorn of prurience as the full-frontal nudity of the cast, offered instead as the metaphorical axis of Pereira dos Santos’s complex satire of New World mythology and unformed national identity. Eating the Frenchman may be an act of defiance, yet it also seals the tribe's fate not only by triggering governmental reprisal, but also by symbolically ingesting the European values that will contribute to their disintegration. How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman invites active examination of contemporary mores by presenting a past where Pocahontas might munch on John Smith as promptly as redeem him. (Fernando F. Croce)

64) At any rate, it would be a mistake to view Como era gostoso o meu frances as a straightforward attempt to mock the archival record. Certainly it mocks historical personages (all of them European), but on one level it is a fairly respectful attempt to adapt or interpret historical narratives. (Darlene Sadlier 62)

65) In many other movies . . . a white protagonist is introduced to a foreign culture, becomes somewhat integrated into it, and then inevitably takes control of the film’s story and away from the very people that are being exploited and endangered. While the intention may be altruistic, time and time again films with these sorts of plot lines become paternalistic and vaguely patronizing; essentially giving the heretofore unexamined culture legitimacy only when embraced by the outsider. (Todd Konrad)

66) The principal problem with Arens’s interpretation of Staden and others regarding Tupinamba cannibalism is that it is not an analytical and critical examination of the few sources he is aware of (or chooses to treat), but essentially a set of assertions that either lack adequate documentation or actually misrepresent the sources. (Donald W. Forsyth 31)

67) Como era gostoso favors the Tupinamba by exposing the duplicity and gratuitous cruelty of nearly all of the Europeans appearing or referred to in the film. (Gordon 87)

68) Various peoples of the Tupi culture frequently ate enemies captured in battle, literally incorporating part of the ingested individual's identity and acquiring in the process a new name. (Theodore Robert Young 81)

69) Because both cannibalism and incest violate rules of accepted distances, the two are often believed to be practiced together. Thus to accuse a group of both cannibalism and incest is tantamount to denying their humanity. (Pat Shipman, qtd in Young 81)

70) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman is the first absolutely non-exploitative (not nonerotic) movie I have seen to require almost total nudity from its cast, both sexes. (Roger Greenspun)

71) The text of Staden plays a key role in establishing aspects of Tupi cannibalism that are not present or are differently represented in other works. In particular, the connection between male provision of sacrificial flesh and female provision of strong beer, the importance of the motive of name-taking, as much as a generalized revenge, in understanding the purposes of warfare and sacrifice, the significance of magical rattles, tammaraka, particularly in the cultural logic of war and cannibalism, as well as the personal construction of self by the Tupi cannibal warrior, the classification of the intended victim as a household pet, and the notion that "their treasures are the feathers of birds." (Neil L. Whitehead 743-44)

72) A more popular legacy for [Staden's book] is also evident in the production of children's literature based on Staden's story -- Manuel Lobato's Aventuras de Hans Staden has gone through eleven editions and been in print since 1927 -- making Hans Staden somewhat analogous to Davy Crockett as an icon of the "wild frontier." (Neil Whitehead x)

73) Such readiness with one’s teeth implies an eager impulsiveness which is not altogether compatible with Christian charity. (Frank Lestringant 58)

74) When Jean (Arduino Colasanti) is captured with the Portuguese, the Tupinamba order them all to speak to verify their nationality. One by one, the Portuguese captives recite recipes from cookbooks -- an unexpectedly amusing moment that contributes to the motif of eating while informing a comic Brazilian stereotype of the Portuguese as a people obsessed with food. (Darlene Sadlier 63)

75) Both Staden’s text and the motion picture contain political sub-texts and reveal an ideological power to impose a culture’s fiction upon the world. (G. U. De Sousa 97)

76) The anthropological ambiance is doubtful, seemingly more fairy tale than fact; the movie's development is erratic; and its conclusion is foregone. But there's a certain childish glee about it, as well as the imprint of one of the most outstanding filmmaking personalities of the Third World. (Tom Allen)

77) Today we can clearly note that nothing has changed. . . Every consumer is reducible, in the last analysis, to cannibalism. The present work relationships, as well as the relationships between people -- social, political, and economic -- are still basically cannibalistic. (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, qtd in Cartelli)

78) The cinema novo lies at the heart of any discussion on national culture in Brazil, because it was conceived specifically to create a "Brazilian cinema" in Brazil, to reveal the country's true face and to contribute to its transformation. . . . The Filmmakers of the cinema novo movement sought to transform society by applying a new, critical and modernist vision of the nation, and to find a new cinematic language that better reflected Brazilian reality, as a challenge to what they considered the vacuous, derivative and industrially produced chanchada films that had dominated film production since the 1930s. (Shaw and Dennison 91-92)

79) There is reason to believe that Caribs killed male captives in elaborate rituals, that they burned their captives’ flesh and carried the ashes in small calabashes around their necks, ate the fat on certain occasions, and, finally, used human bones to make flutes. (Philip Boucher 7)

80) [Cannibalism] conveys a strong sense of ethnographic fidelity, the cannibalism occurring within a well defined, controlled, context. Elements of cosmology, politics, kinship, and morality are highlighted in a tribe which at the time of first European contact is a balanced, functioning entity. (James Green 699)

81) [The film] is an intelligent satire that skewers the horrors of colonization while underscoring the validity and beauty of cultures that had made their home in these territories for centuries before being discovered. (Todd Konrad)

82) The act of cannibalism holds a symbolic significance in Brazilian intellectual culture, dating to the Brazilian modernist creative movement of the 1920s and Oswaldo de Andrade’s 1928 essay, the "Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibal Manifesto)." De Andrade’s "Manifesto" recasts cannibalism as an ideal wherein modern Brazilians assume the traditions of their largely exterminated Amerindian forebears and seek to "consume" their enemies and fellows not solely as an act of violence but with the goal of absorbing the other’s personal and communal power, which in the seventeenth century could be that of a warrior and in the twentieth could be cultural production or intellectual distinction, and in both centuries is a tacit preconceived dominant status. . . . In the 1960s and 1970s, the revitalization of "cannibalist" cultural philosophies in Brazil was linked to the reactive avant-garde movement known as Tropicalism, of which film was a valued medium. (Philip Cartelli)

83) One of dos Santos’ contemporaries, fellow director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, writes of cannibalism in regards to his own film Macunaíma (1969), in a statement that also serves as an appropriate contextualizing epilogue to How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman. "Today we can clearly note that nothing has changed," he writes. "Every consumer is reducible, in the last analysis, to cannibalism. The present work relationships, as well as the relationships between people—social, political, and economic—are still basically cannibalistic." (Philip Cartelli)

84) Cannibalism was a very strange subject. Humans did not seem to be their primary source of food, but were a special occasion and were treated as an elaborate ritual. We did not see any Indians being eaten, but it appeared as though foreigners who were taken as slaves were only eaten as a punishment for what their people had done. Although this seems like a rare event, it was still normal enough that Seboipebe could talk about it and laugh. (Zachary Carter, Lehigh University)

85) Nelson Pereira dos Santos’ trajectory toward a popular cinema traverses several not always distinct phases, which can be superficially (and tentatively) outlined as follows: 1955-1967: sociological phase; 1963-1973: ideological phase; 1974-1981: popular phase. In the first phase dos Santos reveals a concern with a sociological critique of Brazilian society, although the critique does not exclude ideological analysis as well …. The films of this phase share a fairly traditional, linear narrative style and, with the exception of Vidas secas, a classical mode of cinematic discourse. While the films of this phase maintain a critical vision of Brazilian society, it is, so to speak, an external vision, the vision of an intellectual who seeks to contribute thorough cinema to an understanding of Brazil and its people. The second phase, which I have termed “ideological,” may also be called dos Santos’ “Parati” phase, since all of its films were shot in or near Parati, the colonial coastal village south of Rio de Janeiro. It is an ideological phase in that it deals not so much with social situations and structures, but rather with the way in which society is interpreted. . . . Como era gostoso o meu frances [How Tasty Was my Little Frenchman, 1971] is a throwback, in some respects, to the first phase, but relates to the second in its revision of the ideological (official) interpretation of history. . . . The films of this phase are consistently allegorical in content and discontinuous in form, breaking away from the realist discourse of the earlier phase. Cinematic forms themselves are thus questioned in this phase of Nelson Pereira dos Santos’ work. (226) (Randal Johnson 226)

86) The most interesting dynamic between Seboipebe and the Frenchman was the motivational tension; I couldn't quite tell if she intended to save him or if she was utilized as a tool to keep him from escape. Even throughout Seboipebe's description of the cannibalist ceremony, it is almost as she's describing the manner of his death in a flirtatious way, and even more confusing was the Frenchman's equally flirtatious reception to her words. (Carina Meleca, Lehigh University)

87) Both texts [referring to the opening of the film], the visual and the oral, are referring to the exact same event. As spectators we must draw our own conclusions. On the one hand, this first scene is parodic, and clearly sets out to ridicule and undermine the carefully selected “documented” materials that the film includes. It is impossible not to feel at odds with the contradictions embedded in what we are presented. At the same time the film reproduces and affirms its historical anchor in the documents, letters and illustration of the colonial period. Hence, from the beginning of the film we are confronted with an “official” version of conquest and the existence of other silenced “versions.” The tension between narratives and understandings of events will be even more apparent once we enter the world of cannibal. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 11)

88) What is clear about the issue of cannibalism is that, starting with Columbus and the Spaniards, Europeans leveled grossly distorted charges of man-eating against potentially enslavable people who ferociously resisted incursions into their island homelands. Whatever the reality of Island Carib practices, the Europeans created the myth of Caribs as ferocious, insatiable cannibals. As with some other peoples who resisted European incursions, Caribs found themselves saddled with this indictment. (Philip Boucher 7)

89) History records human action through time; it is the memory of human group experience. Although that memory and its records have taken many forms, scholars have demonstrated a strong preference for the written word both in their search for the past and in their reconstruction of it. (E. Bradford Burns 1)

90) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman has a more complicated relation to its sources than the usual movie based on a book. It draws on a wide range of other historical narratives besides Staden, and at various junctures it becomes a stylistic hodgepodge: realistic images of Tupinamba life photographed in documentary fashion on vibrant color stock are mixed with elements of obvious burlesque, and dramatic reenactments are interspersed with title cards quoting directly from sixteenth-century sources. The film's use of colonial history is particularly dense and layered, revealing contradictions in the sources themselves. Throughout it suggests that the historical archive is as riven by conflict as contemporary politics, and it makes clear that the country's past and present-day realities are not distinct. Although the major historical trauma it exposes is a familiar one of European domination and genocide, it suggests that this irreducible violence keeps returning and repeating itself in the here and now; meanwhile it converts the traumatic event described by the Staden text -- the cannibalist act -- into a provocative metaphor for resistance to a modern society of global capital and foreign consumption. (Darlene J. Sadler 192)

91) Pereira was among the first Brazilian directors to rescue Brazilian film from fake Hollywood visions of holidays in Rio enacted by such figures as Carmen Miranda. As a young man he hoped to make movies that included people from all classes of Brazilian life, not just the wealthy, and to deal with social problems that never reached the Hollywood-dominated Brazilian film screens. . . . Pereira filmed How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman in an opposite extreme, using outrageous color film stock. In what Sadlier terms one of "the most talked about movies in the history of Brazilian cinema" (74), Pereira constructs a comic horror film in which sixteenth-century intertexts are read as current events in an analogy of colonialism with global capitalism. The film is Pereira's response to Brazil's building of the Trans-Amazon Highway, in the course of which contact with indigenous communities was made that threatened them with near extinction. (Virginia Higginbotham 277-78)

92) The current destruction of habitat and native populations recalled to Pereira the traumas of colonization, and he began his film based on several historical texts of sixteenth-century explorers in Brazil. In his film, these texts are treated as current news reports of events occurring between the foreign explorers and the Tupinamba, an indigenous tribe that practiced cannibalism. The ingesting of foreign invaders thus becomes for Pereira a metaphor for indigenous resistance to global capitalism, the most recent form of economic colonization. (Virginia Higginbotham 278)

93) European authorities of the 1970s as well as Brazilian censors, however, were not impressed by the film's "archaeological" value and banned it not only at home but at the Cannes Film Festival where it was rejected. While modern culture has by now achieved a degree of acceptance of nudity since Pereira made this film, general indifference to the possible annihilation of an indigenous tribe has changed little since colonial times. (Virginia Higginbotham 279)

94) The idea of ingesting the European is seen as a defensive response in hopes that by eating him, the tribe would acquire the foreigner's attributes and thus be better able to repel him. . . . The metaphor of Brazil's assuming massive foreign debt in order to build projects such as the Trans-Amazon Highway and thus better compete with foreign investors is one of the central metaphors of How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman. (Virginia Higginbotham 279)

95) The cinema novo movement lies at the heart of any discussion on national culture in Brazil, because it was conceived specifically to create "a Brazilian cinema" in Brazil, to reveal the country's true face and to contribute to its transformation. Cinema novo was unlike other new cinemas around the world, in that its objective was not to work in the margins of the established industry, but to be the Brazilian film industry. . . . cinema novo represents the only occasion on which a relatively cohesive group of intellectuals, filmmakers and producers with a common ideology strove towards a common set of cultural and artistic goals. (Shaw and Dennison)

96) The desire for rupture expressed by the so-called cinemanovistas was typical of the late 1950s and early 1960s and the spirit of ambitious developmentalism witnessed, for example, in the building of the new capital, Brasilia, in the "frontier" territory of Goias, in the growth of the labour movements and a politically informed and pseudo-revolutionary middle-class intelligentsia, and in an increasing interest in new cultural forms (Bossa Nova in music, for example), including a long overdue re-evaluation of Brazilian popular culture. Around this time the Brazilian National Union of Students (UNE) was created, reflecting the strongly held belief at the time that young people really could make a difference and could bring about the long overdue revolution. Such developmentalism and revolutionary fervour went hand in hand with a certain amount of cultural and economic nationalism, which ostensibly manifested itself as anti-Americanism. (Shaw and Dennison)

97) The filmmakers of the cinema novo movement sought to transform society by applying a new, critical and modernist vision of the nation, and to find a new cinematic language that better reflected Brazilian reality, as a challenge to what they considered the vacuous, derivative and industrially produced chanchada films that had dominated film production since the 1930s. . . . Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos took the lead and defined the group as the only defender of cinema capable of expressing the transformation of Brazilian society. (Shaw and Dennison)

98) As the film's main and supporting characters are identified and misidentified, assimilated into or cast out of society, their changing cultural affiliations point to two larger questions: Do the central conflicts in the film reside within or between European and Tupi society, and, to what extent are these conflicts about civilising or destroying the other? (Rachel Greenwald 176)

99) The film may have been shot to mimic a contemporary documentary, but the disjunction between the early modern subject matter and the modern technology used to represent it, suggests much more self consciously than many period pieces that this film also invites its audience to see the present through the lens of the past. (Rachel Greenwald 177)

100) In the case of How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, war practices become the testing ground for the epithet of "civilized." For the Tupi, the consumption of the Frenchman simply represents the end product of a ritual of masculinity. Combat does not just involve bravery during battle; war captives are also expected to display courage and defiance just before being eaten: "When I die, my friends will come to revenge me." For the Europeans, however, war signifies the obliteration of a supposed inferior. Shortly before the Frenchman is killed and consumed, he improvises his last words: "When I die, my friends will come to revenge me. No one will remain upon this land." This ritual statement becomes a prophetic announcement, since the last title of the film indicates that the Portuguese Governor General of Brazil in 1547 fought hard to make sure that no Tupi remained alive. Like the Europeans with whom he still identifies, the Frenchman simply cannot imagine a subordinate position for himself, even after eight months of taking full part in tribal customs and rituals. Faced with death at the hands of his "inferiors," he can only threaten their complete destruction, rather than ritualized revenge. (Rachel Greenwald 177)

101) When we were near the dwellings I saw that the place was a small village with seven huts, and it was called Uwattibi. We landed on a beach close by the sea, and there were the women folk in a plantation of mandioca roots. They were going up and down gathering roots, and I was forced to call out to them and say: A junesche been ermi vramme, which means: "I your food have come." As we landed, all the women, young and old, came running out of the huts, which were built on a hill, to stare at me. The men went into their huts with their bows and arrows, leaving me to the pleasure of the women who gathered round and went along with me, some in front and some behind, dancing and singing the songs they are wont to sing to their own people when they are about to eat them. They then carried me to a kind of fort outside the huts called Ywara, which they defend against their enemies by means of great rails made like a garden fence. When I entered this enclosure the women fell upon me and beat me with their fists, plucking at my beard and crying out in their speech: Sehe innamme pepikeae, which is to say: "With this blow I avenge me of my friend, that one who was slain by your people." After this they took me into the huts where I had to lie in a hammock while the women surrounded me and beat me and pulled at me on all sides, mocking me and offering to eat me. Meanwhile the men had assembled in a hut by themselves, drinking a drink which is known as Kawi, and having their gods, called Tammerka, about them, to whom they sang praises, since these gods, they said, had foretold my capture. . . . At this time I knew less of their customs than I knew later, and I thought to myself: now they are preparing to kill me. In a little time the two men who had captured me, namely Jeppipo Wasu and his brother, Alkindar Miri, came near and told me that they had presented me in friendship to their father's brother, Ipperu Wasu, who would keep me until I was ready to be eaten, when he would kill me and thus acquire a new name. (Hans Staden 68-69)

102) My two captors told me further that the women would lead me out Aprasse. This word I did not then understand, but it signifies a dance. Thus was I dragged from the huts by the rope which was still about my neck to the dancing place. All the women came running from the seven huts, and seized me while the men withdrew, some by the arms, some by the rope about my throat, which they pulled so tight that I could hardly breathe. So they carried me with them, for what purpose I knew not, and I could think only of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of his innocent sufferings at the hands of the Jews, whereat I was comforted and grew more patient. They brought me to the hut of their king, who was called Vratinge Wasu, which means the great white bird. In front of this hut was a heap of fresh earth, and they brought me to it and sat me there, holding me fast. I could not but think that they would slay me forthwith and began to look about me for the club Iwera Pemme which they use to kill their prisoners, and I asked whether I was now to die, but they told me "not yet." Upon this a woman approached carrying a piece of crystal fastened to a kind of ring and with it she scraped off my eyebrows and tried to scrape off my beard also, but I resisted, saying that I would die with my beard. Then they answered that they were not ready to kill me yet and left me my beard. But a few days later they cut it off with some scissors which the Frenchmen had given them. (Hans Staden 70-71)

103) When the dance was ended I was handed over to Ipperu Wasu who guarded me closely. He told me that I had some time to live. And the people brought the idols from the huts and set them up around me, saying that these had prophesied that they would capture a Portuguese. Then I replied that the idols were powerless and could not speak, and that even so they lied, since I was no Portuguese, but a kinsman and friend to the French, and that my native land was called Allemania. They made answer that it was I who lied, for if I was truly the Frenchmen's friend, how came it that I was among the Portuguese? For they knew well that the French were as much the enemies of the Portuguese as they were, and that they came every year in their boats, bringing knives, axes, mirrors, combs and scissors, and taking in exchange Brazilian wood, cotton, and other goods, such as feathers and pepper. These men were their good friends which the Portuguese were not. For the Portuguese, when they came to the country and settled there, had made friends with their enemies. Moreover, the Portuguese had come to their country, desiring to trade with them, and when they had gone down in all friendship and entered the ships, as they are to this day accustomed to do with the Frenchmen, the Portuguese had waited until sufficient numbers were on board, and had then seized and bound them, carrying them away to their enemies who had killed and eaten them. Others the Portuguese had slain with their guns, committing also many further acts of aggression, and even joining with their enemies and waging frequent war, with intent to capture them. (Hans Staden 73)

104) There was a Frenchman four miles distant from the village in which I was, and when he heard news of me he came and entered one of the huts opposite to the one in which I was kept. Then the savages came running to me and said: " Here is a Frenchman. Now we shall see whether you are in truth a Frenchman or not." At this I rejoiced greatly, for I told myself that he was at least a Christian and would do his best for me. Then they took me to him, naked as I was, and I found him to be a youth known to the savages by the name Karwattuware. He commenced to speak to me in French, which I could not well understand, and the savages stood round about and listened. Then, when I was unable to reply to him, he spoke to the savages in their own tongue and said: "Kill him and eat him, the good-for-nothing, for he is indeed a Portuguese, your enemy and mine." This I understood, and I begged him for the love of God to tell them not to eat me, but he replied only: "They will certainly eat you." Whereupon I bethought me of the words of the Prophet Jeremy (chapter xvii) when he said: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man," and I departed from them with a heavy heart. I had on my shoulders a linen cloth which the savages had given me, although I know not where they can have obtained it. This I tore off and flung it at the French-man's feet, saying to myself (for the sun had burnt me severely) that it was useless to preserve my flesh for others if I was to die. And they carried me back to the hut which was my prison where I retched myself in my hammock. God alone knows the misery that I endured, and weeping I commenced to sing the verse: "Let us now beseech the Holy Ghost to save and guard us when death approaches and we pass from sorrows into peace. Kyrioleys." But the savages said only: "He is indeed a true Portuguese. Now he cries. Truly he is afraid to die." The Frenchman remained for two days in the huts, and on the third day he departed. The savages had resolved to make their preparations and to kill me on the day when everything should be ready. In the meantime they kept me very closely and mocked me continuously, both young and old. (Hans Staden 75-76)

105) It fell out during my misery, just as men say, that troubles never come singly, for one of my teeth commenced to ache so violently that by reason of the pain I could not eat and lost flesh. Whereat my master enquired of me why I ate so little, and I replied that I had toothache. Then he came with an instrument made of wood, and wanted to pull out the tooth. I told him that it had ceased to trouble me, but nevertheless he tried to pull it out with force, and I resisted so vigorously that he gave up the attempt. Then he threatened that if I did not eat and grow fat again they would kill me before the appointed day. God knows how earnestly, from my heart, I desired, if it was his will, to die in peace without the savages perceiving it and before they could work their will on me. (Hans Staden 76)

106) There in the other huts they began to mock me, and the king's son bound my legs in three places, and I was forced to hop thus through the huts on both feet, at which they made merry, saying: "Here comes our food hopping towards us." Then I asked my master whether he had brought me there to be killed, and he said "No," but that it was the people's custom to treat enemy slaves so. They now unbound my legs and began to walk round me, tearing at my flesh, one saying that the skin on my head was his, another claiming the fat on my legs. After this I had to sing to them, and I sang holy songs, and when they asked me what I sang I told them that I was singing of my God. But they replied that my God was no better than dirt, calling him in their tongue Teuire. These words caused me much anguish, and I prayed and said: "O God, thou art long-suffering indeed." When all in the village had seen me and abused me, the king, Konyan Bebe, gave orders on the following day that I was to be closely guarded. Then they carried me away from the huts towards Uwattibi where they were to kill me, and the people mocked me, crying out after me that they would not fail to come to my master's hut to drink to me while they ate me; but my master comforted me, saying that they would not kill me yet. (Hans Staden 79-80)

107) On the day on which the others departed, towards evening, when it was moonlight, the people assembled in the space between the huts and took counsel and deliberated when to kill me, placing me in their midst, and mocking and threatening me. I was much cast down and as I regarded the moon I thought within myself and said: "O Lord God, rescue me from this danger and bring it to a peaceful end." Then they asked me why I looked so intently at the moon, and I replied: "I perceive that the moon is wrath," for the face in the moon seemed to me to have (God forgive me) so terrible an aspect that I imagined God and all creatures must be angry with me. Then the king who desired to kill me, by name Jeppipo Wasu, one of the chiefs of the huts, enquired of me with whom the moon was angry, and I replied: "She is looking towards your huts," whereupon he began to rage and dispute with me, and to appease him I added: "Perchance it is not you with whom she is wrath, but the Carios slaves" (these being a savage tribe so called). "Yes," said he, "upon them let the misfortune fall," and thus the matter remained, and it passed from my mind. (Hans Staden 81-82)

108) When I was daily expecting the return of the others who, as I have reported, were preparing for my death, I heard one day the sound of howling in the huts of the king who was absent. I was much afraid, for I thought that they had now returned, since it is the custom of the savages, when one of them has been absent for not longer than four days, to cry over him with joy when he returns.' Presently one of the savages came to me and reported that the brother of him who owned a share in me had returned with the news that the others were all sick, whereat I greatly rejoiced, for I told myself that now God would show his might. Not long afterwards this brother himself came to the hut where I was, and sitting down by me he commenced to cry aloud, saying that his brother, his mother, and his brother's children had all fallen sick, and that his brother had sent him to me with the message that I was to make my God restore them to health; and he added that his brother was persuaded that my God was wrath with them. To which I replied: "My God is indeed angry with you for threatening to eat me, and for going to Mambukabe to prepare the feast, and for falsely accusing me of being a Portuguese." I told him, further, to return to his brother and bid him come back to the huts, and I would intercede with my God to make him well again. He replied that his brother was too ill to come, but that he knew and had observed that if I desired it he would recover. Whereupon I made answer that he must wait until he was strong enough to come home to his huts, and that then he would be restored to health. With this answer he returned to Mambukabe, which is situated four miles from Uwattibi, where I was. (Hans Staden 84-85)

109) After some days the sick persons all came back. Then was I taken to the king's huts, and he told me how the sickness had come upon them, and that I must have known of it, for he well remembered my saying that the moon was wrath with them. When I heard this I told myself that it was indeed God's doing that I had spoken of the moon on that evening, and I rejoiced greatly and said: "This day is God with me." I told the king that this misfortune had befallen him because he had threatened to eat me, although I was no enemy of his, and he promised that if he recovered his health no evil should happen to me. But I was at a loss what to ask of God, for it seemed to me that if the savages recovered they would kill me at once, and if they died the others would say: "Let us kill him lest greater misfortunes befall us," as indeed they had already begun to say, and I could only submit the whole matter to God, the king beseeching me anew to make them well again. I went to and fro laying my hands on their heads as they desired me to do, but God did not suffer it and they began to die. A child died first, and then the king's mother, an old woman, whose business it was to prepare the pots for the drink with which I was to be eaten. Some days later a brother died, and then again a child, and then another brother, that one who had first brought me news of their illness. When the king saw that his children and his mother and brother were dead he began to fear that he and his wives would die also, and he begged me to tell my God to make an end of his wrath so that he might live. I comforted him mightily, telling him not to despair, and that when he recovered his health he must give up all thought of killing me, which he promised, giving orders to those in his huts to cease from mocking me and threatening to eat me. He remained sick for a time, but finally he recovered, as did one of his wives who had been stricken, but there died of his family some eight persons, besides others, all of whom had treated me with great cruelty. (Hans Staden 85-87)

110) There were two kings in two other huts, one called Vratinge Wasu, the other Kenrimakui. Vratinge Wasu dreamed a dream, and in his dream I appeared before him and told him that he would die, and the next morning early he came to me and made complaint to me, but I comforted him, saying that he would live, but that he also must: not think of killing me, nor give counsel to others to kill me. He replied that he would not do so, and that so long as those who had captured me did not kill me, so long he would do me no harm, and that even if they killed me he would not eat of me. The second king, Kenrimakui, also dreamed a dream about me which greatly terrified him, and he called me into his huts and gave me to eat, and then he spoke to me of it and told me how, in one of his expeditions, he had captured a Portuguese whom he had killed with his own hands, after which he had eaten so much of him that his stomach had been afflicted ever afterwards, and that he would never eat another Portuguese. But now he had dreamed about me, and his dream was so terrible that he thought he was about to die. I comforted him also, and told him he would recover, but that he must eat no more human flesh. (Hans Staden 87)

111) The old women about the huts who had done me much injury, beating me and threatening to eat me, now called me Scheraeire, which signifies: "Son, do not let me die," saying that when they ill-treated me they thought I was one of the Portuguese whom they hated. Further that they had eaten many Portuguese whose God had never been as angry as mine, and that it was clear that I was not a Portuguese at all. After this they left me alone for a time, for they did not know what to do with me, nor whether I was in truth a Portuguese or a Frenchman. They re-marked that I had a red beard like the Frenchmen, whereas the Portuguese, although they had seen some with red beards, had in general black beards. When the terror was abated, and one of my masters had recovered, there was no more talk of eating me, but they guarded me closely and would not suffer me to go about unattended. (Hans Staden 87-88)

112) When, therefore, [the Frenchman] entered the huts and saw me he addressed me in the savage tongue, and at that time I was not bound as previously. He asked me how it came about that I was still alive, and I told him that God in his goodness had protected me until then. It occurred to me that he might have heard from the savages how matters had fallen out, and I drew him aside privately, so that the savages might not hear us, and told him again that God had spared my life, and that I was no Portuguese, but a German who had suffered shipwreck with certain Spaniards and had afterwards fallen among the Portuguese. I urged him to tell the savages this, and to make clear to them that I was his kinsman and friend, and to take me away with him when the ships arrived. For I was fearful that if he did not do this the savages would consider all that I had told them to be lies, and that sooner or later in their anger they would kill me. And I reproached him in the savage tongue, and asked whether he had a Christian heart in his bosom when he enjoined the savages to kill me, or had considered the life that was to come, whereupon he began to be ashamed and excused himself, saying that he had thought that I was indeed a Portuguese, who were such scoundrels that if the French could catch them anywhere in the province of Brazil they would hang them forthwith, which was indeed the truth. (Hans Staden 88-89)

113) Some days later the savages made preparations to eat one of their captives. These preparations took place in a village called Teckquarippe, about six miles away, and a company of people set out for the village, taking me with them. The slave who was to be eaten belonged to a nation called Marcaya, and we travelled thither in a canoe. Now it is their custom when they are about to kill a man for the people to brew a drink from roots called Kawi, and after they have drunk this they kill their victim. I went to the prisoner on the eve of the day on which they were to drink in preparation for his death, and said: "All is ready for your death," and he laughed and said: "Yes." Now the rope with which they bind their victims is called Mussurana, and it is made of cotton, being thicker than a man's finger, and the man agreed that all was in order, only the rope was too short, for it wanted some six fathoms in length, and he added that with his people the matter would have been better arranged. And he spoke and acted as if he were going to a merrymaking. I had with me a book in the Portuguese tongue, which the savages had taken from a ship they had captured with the help of the French, and they had given it to me. I departed from the prisoner and read in the book, and was consumed with pity for him. I therefore returned to him, for the Portuguese are friendly with the Marcaya tribe, and told him that I also was a prisoner as he was, and had not come to eat him, but had been brought there by my masters. He replied that he knew well that we did not eat human flesh. I then told him to be comforted for they would eat his body only, but his soul would be gathered to another place with the people of our nation where all was happiness and joy, but he doubted whether this was true, for he said he had never seen God. I told him that he would indeed see him in another life, and so left him. . . . When day broke it was fine weather and the savages drank and were merry, but I went to the victim and told him that the great wind was my God, and that he had come to claim him. And on the following day he was eaten. (Hans Staden 90-91)

114) That night a great storm of wind arose and blew so furiously that pieces of the roofs of the huts were carried away. Then the savages began to murmur against me, saying in their speech: Apo Meiren geuppawy wittu wasu Immou: "This evil fellow, the magician, has brought this wind upon us, for he looked by day into his book of thunder," meaning the book which I had, and they insisted that I had done this because the prisoner was a friend of the Portuguese, saying that I intended, perchance, to hinder the feast with bad weather. Then I prayed to God and said: "Lord, thou hast protected me until now, protect me still further," for they murmured much again me. (Hans Staden 91)

115) When the feast was over we returned to our dwellings, my masters bringing some of the roast meat with them. The journey, which usually occupies one day, took three days to accomplish owing to the wind and rain, and the first evening, as we were setting up huts of wood to protect us, the savages asked me to make the rain cease. Now there was a boy with us who had a piece of the leg-bone of the dead slave with some flesh upon it, which he was eating. I told the boy to throw it away, but he grew angry, as did also the others, saying that it was their proper food. So I left the matter. When we arrived within a quarter of a mile of our dwellings we could proceed no further, since the waves were too much for us. We beached the canoe and waited for the next day, when we looked for better weather, and hoped to be able to take the canoe home, but it remained Wormy. Then they resolved to proceed by land and come back for the canoe when the weather improved. As we were about to go, the savages finished their meal, and the boy continued gnawing the flesh off the bone, after which he threw it away, and as soon as we set out the weather improved. "Now see," said I, "you doubted when I said that my God was angry because the boy ate the flesh from the bone," and they all agreed, saying that he should have eaten it out of my sight, and that the weather would then have continued fine, and so the matter rested. (Hans Staden 92-93)

116) After we had at last reached the huts, one of the men who owned a part of me, named Alkindar, enquired whether I had seen what they did with their enemies, and I replied that I had seen it indeed, but that the eating was more terrible to me than the killing. Whereupon he answered: "Such is our custom, and so we do also with the Portuguese." This Alkindar was very incensed against me and would have rejoiced if the man to whom he had presented me had killed me, for, as you will have read above, Ipperu Wasu had presented him with a slave for him to kill in order to obtain a fresh name for himself, and Alkindar in return had vowed to present him with the first slave he caught. Since he had not killed me, however, Alkindar would gladly have done so himself, but his brother prevented this, fearing that fresh misfortunes might befall him. Before the others had taken me to the place where they ate the man, this same Alkindar had renewed his threats to kill me, but when I returned I found that during my absence he had been attacked by pains in the eyes, and was forced to lie still. He was quite blind for a time, and begged me continually to speak with my God so that he might be cured. I consented upon condition that he should cease to ill-treat me, which he promised, and in a few days he was restored to health. (Hans Staden 93)

117) Then I said: "Now may God reward you in eternity, for I am here in great fear and peril, and know not what may befall me. But for God's merciful intervention I should have been eaten." I said further: "They will not sell me to you: they would not even think of it, but do not you in the ship let the savages think of me otherwise than as a Frenchman, and give me, for the love of God, knives and fish-hooks." This they did at once, and a man returned to the ship and fetched them. When I saw that the savages would not suffer me to parley any longer, I said to the Portuguese: "Look well to it, they are going to attack Brikioka." They replied that the savages, their allies, were also preparing for war, and would attack the village where I was, and that I was to be of good cheer, since God would do what was best, but, as I could see, they were powerless to help me. I agreed, saying: "All this has befallen me on account of my sins. It is better that God should punish me now, rather than in the world to come, but pray you to God for my deliverance": and I commended them to God. The Portuguese desired to speak further with me, but the savages would not permit it and carried me back again to the huts. Then I took the knives and fish-hooks and gave them to the savages saying: "All these my brother, the Frenchman, gave me." And they enquired what he had spoken about with me. I replied that I had told my brother to escape from the Portuguese and return to our home, and bring a ship well stocked with goods to fetch me: "For," said I, "you are good people and treat me well and I am anxious to reward you when the ship comes." Thus at all times I had to conciliate them and they were well pleased. (Hans Staden 96)

118) There was a slave among the savages belonging to the nation called Carios. . . . Now some years previously the Portuguese had slain one of their kings, and this man maintained that the king had been shot by me, and he urged the savages constantly to kill me, saying that I was their real enemy as he himself had seen, but this was all lies, for he had been three years there and only a year had passed since I had reached Sancto Vincente, from which place he had escaped. And I prayed God to save me from his lies. It happened about the year 1554, in the sixth month of my captivity, that this Cario fell ill, and his master besought me to help him and make him well again, so that he might catch game for us to eat, especially since, as I knew well, the food that was brought in was shared with me. But if I was of opinion that the man could not recover, then he would give him to one of his friends, so that he might kill him and take a fresh name for himself. And the man had been ill for nine or ten days. Now the savages are accustomed to use for several purposes the teeth of a wild beast called Backe, which they sharpen, and when the blood is sluggish they cut the skin with one of these teeth so that the blood flows freely. This is equivalent with us to letting blood. I took one of these teeth, intending to open the median vein, but I could not cut it as the tooth was too blunt, and the savages wood round about. As I left him I saw that it was useless, but the savages continued to enquire whether he would recover, to which I replied that I could do nothing and that, as they saw, the blood would not flow. Then they said: "He will surely die. Let us kill him before he is dead." I answered: "No, do not kill him, for possibly he may recover," but I could not restrain them. They dragged him in front of the hut of the king Vratinge, while two men held him, although he was so ill that he did not know what they were doing. Then the man came up, to whom the Cario had been given, and beat out his brains, after which they left him lying before the huts ready to be eaten. But I warned them that he was a sick man, and that they might also fall sick if they ate him, and they knew not what to do. Nevertheless, one came from the huts where I was and called the women-folk to make a fire beside the body. Then he cut off the head, for the man had lost an eye from his disease and his appearance was horrible, and throwing away the head, he singed the body at the fire. After this he cut him up and divided the flesh equally, as is their custom, and they devoured everything except the head and intestines, which they did not fancy, on account of the man's sickness. (Hans Staden 98-99)

119) As I went to and fro in the huts I saw them roasting here the feet, there the hands, and elsewhere a piece of the trunk, and I told the savages that this Cario whom they were roasting and eating had always spoken ill of me, saying that while I was among the Portuguese I had shot several of their friends, and that he lied, for he had never seen me before. "Now see," said I, "he had been several years with you and had never been sick, but on account of his lying stories about me, my God was angry with him and smote him with sickness and put it into your minds to kill and eat him. So will my God do to all evil persons who seek or have sought to injure me." And they were greatly terrified at my words, but I thanked God that he had in this wise shown his might and power through me. Note reader, and mark well my writing, for I do this not in order to tell you strange things, but only to make known the wonderful works of God. (Hans Staden 99-100)

120) Now when I saw that the boat was preparing to depart, I prayed and said: "O merciful God, if the ship sails without me I shall certainly perish, for this is a people in whom no man can trust." With this I left the huts and ran towards the water, but the savages saw me and came after me. I ran as fast as I could, while they tried to seize me. The first that came up with me I struck down, and soon the whole village was at my heels, but I escaped and swam out beside the boat. When I tried to climb into the boat the Frenchmen thrust me away, for they thought that if they took me thus the savages would rise against them and become their enemies. So, very sadly, I swam back to the shore, for I saw it was God's will that I should remain there still longer in misery. But if I had not tried to escape then I should have blamed myself afterwards. When the savages saw me return they rejoiced and said: "Now he comes back to us." But I was wrath with them and said: "Do you think that I would leave you thus? I went to the boat to tell my people that they must send again for me after your return from the wars, so that when you bring me to them they will have much to give you in exchange." This pleased them greatly and they were once more contented. (Hans Staden 101-2)

121) The capture had taken place at sea, two full miles from land, and we hurried back as quickly as we could in order to encamp in the place where we had spent the previous night. When we reached the land called Meyenbipe it was evening and the sun was setting, and each man took his prisoner to his hut. Those that had been badly wounded they carried to the land, where they were killed at once and cut up and roasted. Among those who were roasted that night were two of the mamelukes who were Christians; one was a Portuguese named George Ferrero, the son of a captain by a native woman. The other was called Hieronymus. He had been captured by a native belonging to my hut, whose name was Parwaa, and this man spent the whole night roasting Hieronymus, scarcely a step from the spot where I lay. This same Hieronymus (God have his soul) was blood relation to Diego de Praga. (Hans Staden 106-7)

122) That night, when we were encamped, I went into the hut where the two brothers [Diego de Praga and Domingus de Pragawere] to talk with them, for they had been my good friends at Brikioka where I was captured. They enquired of me whether they would also be eaten, but I told them that they must trust in our Heavenly Father and in his Son Jesus Christ, who was crucified for our sins, and in whose name we were baptized. I said also: "This is my belief. God has watched over me so long here among the savages, and what God decrees must satisfy us." The two brothers enquired also concerning their cousin Hieronymus, and I told them that he lay by the fire roasting, and that I had seen a piece of Ferrero's son being eaten. Then they commenced to weep, and I comforted them, telling them that I had been eight months or thereabouts among the savages, and that God had been my protector. "So also," I said, "will he protect you, if you trust in him." I told them also that it was harder for me than for them, for I had come from foreign countries, knowing nothing of the dreadful practices of the savages, but, as for them, they had been born in the country and bred there. They replied, however, that I had been hardened by misery and should therefore take less account of it. As I was discoursing with them, the savages came and ordered me to depart, and they wanted to know what matters I had discussed with them at such length. I was sad at leaving them, and told them to put their whole trust in God, and to remember what sufferings were ours in this vale of sorrows, and they replied that never until then had they realized this, that they owed their lives to God, and that they would die more happily since I was with them. With that I left them and went through the whole camp visiting the prisoners. I went alone and none heeded me, and I could have escaped then, for the island Meyenbipe was only some ten miles from Brikioka, but I refrained on account of the Christian prisoners, of whom four were still alive. I thought that if I escaped, the savages would kill them at once in their anger. It might well be that God would still preserve us all, and I resolved to remain with them and comfort them, and this I did. (Hans Staden 107-8)

123) On the day following we reached a place not far from the country of my captors, called Occarasu, a great mountain. There we camped for the night, and I went to the hut of Konyan Bebe, the chief king, and asked what he intended to do with the two mamelukes. He replied that they would be eaten, and forbade me to speak with them, for he was very wrath, saying that they should have spayed at home instead of going to fight with his enemies. I begged him to spare their lives and sell them back again to their friends, but he was resolved that they should be eaten. This same Konyan Bebe had then a great vessel full of human flesh in front of him and was eating a leg which he held to my mouth, asking me to taste it. I replied that even beasts which were without understanding did not eat their own species, and should a man devour his fellow creatures? But he took a bite saying Jau ware sehe: "I am a tiger; it tastes well," and with that I left him. In the evening he gave orders that each man should bring his prisoner to an open space by the water, and this was done, and the savages gathered together into a circle with the prisoners in the centre, and they forced them to sing and rattle the idols which are called Tammaraka. When the prisoners had finished singing, they commenced to talk wantonly among themselves, saying: "We set forth like brave men intending to capture you, our enemies, and to eat you. Now you have the mastery, and have taken us, but we do not crave for mercy, for brave men are willing to die in an enemy country. But our land is wide and there are many waiting to take vengeance for our deaths." And the others made answer: "You have slain many of our fellows. Now will we be the avengers." When this speech was ended the prisoners were taken back to the huts. (Hans Staden 109-10)

124) I had made a cross of reeds and set it up in front of my hut, and it was my custom to say my prayers there. I had told the savages not to remove it, lest some misfortune should befall them. But they gave no heed to my words, and once when I was away fishing, a woman tore up the cross and gave it to her husband to use for rubbing down the charms which they make from the shells of sea-snails, since it was round. At this I was very sad, and some days later it began to rain heavily. The rain endured for several days, and the savages came to my hut and asked me to tell my God to stop the rain, for if it continued it would spoil their planting, the time for which had then arrived. I replied that it was their own fault, for they had angered my God by pulling up the wooden stick in front of which I used to speak with him. When they heard that this was the cause of the rain, my master's son helped me to set up another cross, and it was then about an hour after midday, reckoning by the sun. As soon as the cross was set up the weather, which before noon had been very stormy, began at once to improve. And they all marvelled, saying that my God, in truth, did as I told him. (Hans Staden 112-13)

125) One day I went fishing with the chief named Parwaa, the man who had roasted Hieronymus, and as I stood fishing with him and another at the close of day, there arose a great storm of rain and thunder not far from where we stood, and the wind blew the rain in our direction. Then the two men begged me to ask my God to see to it that the rain did not hinder us, so that we might catch more fish since, as I knew, there was nothing to eat in the hut. Thus moved, I prayed to God from the depths of my heart, that he might show his power in me and make plain to the heathen that he was with me at all times. As I finished my supplication the wind, blowing mightily, carried the rain towards us, so that it was raining heavily some six feet away from us, but on the place where we stood we felt nothing. Then the savage Parwaa spoke saying: "Now I see that you have indeed prayed to your God," and we caught a number of fish. When we returned to the huts the two men told the others what had happened when I spoke to my God, and they were all amazed. (Hans Staden 113-14)

126) In the meantime it happened that the Frenchmen who had arrived there heard that I was a prisoner among the savages, and the captain sent two of his men, together with certain native kings, their friends, to the place where I was, and they came to a hut, the chief king of which was called Sowarasu. My hut was close at hand, and news was brought to me that the two men had arrived from the ship. At this I rejoiced greatly, and went to them and bade them welcome in the native tongue, and when they saw my misery and nakedness they were full of pity and shared their clothes with me. I asked them why they had come and they said that it was on my account, and that their orders were to take me to the ship and to use force if necessary. Then my heart overflowed with gratitude to God. (Hans Staden 117)

127) At last the ship was ready and the Frenchmen were all mustered together and I with them, the king, my master, with his people, being also there. Then the ship's captain spoke to the savages through his interpreter, and said that he was well pleased that they had not killed me when they captured me from among their enemies. He said also, in order to make it easier for him to take me away, that he had ordered me to be brought to the ship so that he might reward them for their care of me. Further, that it was his intention to give me goods and wares, and as I was known to them, to leave me there to collect pepper and other useful commodities until he came again. Meanwhile we had arranged between us that some ten of the crew, who were not unlike me, should gather round and say that they were my brothers and wanted to take me home. And so it fell out. My brothers would not suffer me to land, saying that I must return with them, as my father longed to see me once more before he died. Upon this the captain told the savages that he was captain in the ship and would have preferred that I should return with them, but that he was only one against many and could do nothing. All this was ordained so that we might part from the savages on friendly terms. I told the king, my master, that I should greatly like to return with him, but that, as he could see, my brothers would not allow me to do so. Thereupon he began to howl and cry in the ship, saying that if they took me away I must return with the first boat, for he looked upon me as his son, and was wrath with those of Uwattibi for threatening to eat me. And one of his wives who was in the ship began to cry over me, according to their custom, and I cried also. Then the captain gave them goods, some five ducats' worth in knives, axes, looking-glasses, and combs, and the savages returned with them to their dwellings. Thus Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saved me from the hands of these evil men. To him be praise and glory through Jesus Christ, his Son, our Redeemer. Amen. (Hans Staden 118-19)

128) This ship was the one which, as I have related, came after me to buy me from the savages, and it was owned by a factor named Peter Rosel. The Frenchmen armed a boat and drew near, intending to take it, and I went with them to speak to the Portuguese and advise them to surrender. But when we attacked them they beat us off and killed and wounded several of us. 1 also was wounded by a shot, and that more severely than some of the others who recovered, for I was very near death, and in my fear I cried to God and besought him, since he had rescued me from the savages, to save me alive and bring me safe to Christian lands, so that I might make known there the mercies vouchsafed to me. And in due course I was completely restored to health. Glory be to God for ever and ever. (Hans Staden 119-20)

129) The crew of the Bellete had not yet reached land when I arrived, although, reckoning by the voyage of the ship from Wattavilla which carried me, they should have preceded us by three months. The wives and relations of the men came to me, enquiring if I had news of them. I said that I had indeed news of them, and that there were godless people in the ship, what-ever else they might be, and I related how one of them who was in the ship, finding me in a savage country, had told the savages to eat me, but that God had brought me home in safety. I told them, further, that when they were in their boat by the huts where I was, having traded with the savages for pepper and monkeys, these people, I said, when I contrived to escape and swam out to them refused to take me in and forced me to return to land to the savages, which nearly broke my heart. Also that they had given a Portuguese sailor to the savages to be eaten, and were a people altogether without pity. "From this," said I, "it is clear that God dealt kindly with me, so that I am here to bring you the latest tidings. Let them come when they may, but I will prophesy to you that God will see to it that such cruelty and tyranny as they showed to me among the savages (God forgive them) will be punished sooner or later, since it is clear that God listened to my complaints." (Hans Staden 122-23)

130) Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, God of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who with great might didn`t bring the children of Israel through the Red Sea out of the hands of their enemies, and didst save Daniel in the den of lions, I beseech thee, all-powerful and eternal God, through thy dear Son Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us prisoners from everlasting captivity, to deliver me from the power of these tyrants who know thee not. If Lord it is thy will that I should suffer death at the hands of these people, who when I speak of thee deny thy power to save me, so strengthen me in my last hour when they work their will upon me that I may trust in thy mercy to the end. And if I am to suffer this great misery, now, do thou give me peace hereafter and save me from those torments which our fore-fathers so much feared. Yet Lord thou cant deliver me from their hands, help me Lord, for I know thy might, and when thou had delivered me, so will I acknowledge no power but thine own mighty hand stretched forth to save me, for I am indeed beyond the help of men. So will I praise thy mercy and publish it abroad to all people and in all countries where I may be. Amen. (Hans Staden 123-24)

131) A man rejoicing in his strength and pride thinks not upon God, but drives with him. Yet when tribulation comes upon him, then he lifts up his voice to the heavens. For men are tried by God for their salvation. Let none doubt that sorrow is a gift from God; for there is neither strength nor comfort, neither defence nor support save in God's name alone. So shall a man bring up his children to know God and trust in him. And when trouble comes upon them they shall be comforted. Know reader that in these my labours I seek no honour for myself. To God be the glory. He knows all the thoughts of men and searches out their hearts. May God's blessing rest on you and on me hereafter for evermore. (Hans Staden 124)

132) America is a large country inhabited by many tribes of savages who speak several different languages, and there are many curious beasts there. It is a pleasant country to look at, the trees are always green, but there is no wood there like our wood, and the savages go naked. In tropical countries it is never so cold as with us at Michaelmas, but the country lying south of the Tropic of Capricorn is somewhat colder. In this part live the savage nations called Carios, who use the skin of wild beasts, which they prepare with great skill and clothe themselves therewith. Their women make garments of cotton yarn, like a sack below and open above, and they wear these garments and call them in their language Typpoy. {63} The land is well supplied with fruits both of the earth and the trees, and is apt for the sustenance of man and beast. The natives are of a reddish-brown colour on account of the sun which burns them severely. They are a well-shaped people, but cunning in all wickedness, and it is their custom to capture and eat their enemies. (Hans Staden Part 2, chap 2)

133) They make constant war upon their enemies, and when they want to capture them they hide behind the dry wood near to the huts, so that when anyone comes to take wood they can fall upon him. They treat their enemies with great cruelty and receive the same treatment when they are captured. For example, such is their hate that they often cut off an arm or a leg from a living prisoner. Others they kill, before they cut them up for eating. (Hans Staden Part 2, chap 3)

134) Why one enemy eats another. This they do, not from hunger, but from great hate and jealousy, and when they are fighting with each other one, filled with hate, will call out to his opponent: Dete Immeraya, Schermiuramme, heiwoe:--"Cursed be you my meat": De kange Jueve eypota kurine:--"To-day will I cut off your head": Sche Innamme pepicke Reseagu:--"Now am I come to take vengeance on you for the death of my friends": Yande soo, sche mocken Sera Quora Ossorime Rire etc.:--"This day before sunset your flesh shall be my roast meat." All this they do from their great hatred. (Hans Staden Part 2, chap 25)

135) Of their manner of killing and eating their enemies. Of the instrument with which they kill them, and the rites which follow. When they first bring home a captive the women and children set upon him and beat him. Then they decorate him with grey feathers and shave off his eyebrows, and dance around him, having first bound him securely so that he cannot escape. They give him a woman who attends to him and has intercourse with him. If the woman conceives, the child is maintained until it is fully grown. Then, when the mood seizes them, they kill and eat it. They feed the prisoner well and keep him for a time while they prepare the pots which are to contain their drink. They bake also special pots in which to prepare the mixture wherewith they paint him, and they make tassels to tie to the club with which he is to be killed, as well as a long cord, called Mussurana, to bind him when the time comes. When all is ready they fix the day of his death and invite the savages from the neighbouring villages to be present. The drinking vessels are filled a few days in advance, and before the women make the drink, they bring forth the prisoner once or twice to the place where he is to die and dance round him. When the guests have assembled, the chief of the huts bids them welcome and desires that they shall help them to eat their enemy. The day before they commence to drink, the cord Mussurana is tied about the victim's neck and on this day also they paint the club called Iwera Pemme with which they intend to kill him. This is of the shape depicted here. It is about 6 feet (a fathom) long, and they cover it with a sticky mess, after which they take the eggs of a bird called Mackukawa, which they break up to powder and spread upon the club. Then a woman sits down and scratches figures in the powder, while the other women dance and sing around her. When the club Iwera Pemme is ready decked with tassels and other things, they hang it in an empty hut upon a pole, and sing in front of it all night. In the same manner they paint the face of the victim, the women singing while another woman paints, and when they begin to drink they take their captive with them and talk to him while he drinks with them. After the drinking bout is over they rest the next day and build a hut on the place of execution, in which the prisoner spends the night under close guard. Then, a good while before daybreak on the day following, they commence to dance and sing before the club, and so they continue until day breaks. After this they take the prisoner from his hut, which they break to pieces and clear away. Then they remove the Mussurana from the prisoner's neck, and tying it round his body they draw it tight on either side so that he stands there bound in the midst of them, while numbers of them hold the two ends of the cord. So they leave him for a time, but they place stones beside him which he throws at the women, who run about mocking him and boasting that they will eat him. These women are painted, and are ready to take his four quarters when he is cut up, and run with them round the huts, a proceeding which causes great amusement to the others. Then they make a fire about two paces from the prisoner which he has to tend. After this a woman brings the club Iwera Pemme, waving the tassels in the air, shrieking with joy, and running to and fro before the prisoner so that he may see it. Then a man takes the club and landing before the prisoner he shows it to him. Meanwhile he who is going to do the deed withdraws with fourteen or fifteen others, and they all paint their bodies grey with ashes. Then the slayer returns with his companions, and the man who holds the club before the prisoner hands it to the slayer. At this stage the king of the huts approaches, and taking the club he thrusts it once between the slayer's legs which is a sign of great honour. Then the slayer seizes it and thus addresses the victim: "I am he that will kill you, since you and yours have slain and eaten many of my friends." To which the prisoner replies: "When I am dead I shall still have many to avenge my death." Then the slayer strikes from behind and beats out his brains. The women seize the body at once and carry it to the fire where they scrape off the skin, making the flesh quite white, and stopping up the fundament with a piece of wood so that nothing may be lost. Then a man cuts up the body, removing the legs above the knee and the arms at the trunk, whereupon the four women seize the four limbs and run with them round the huts, making a joyful cry. After this they divide the trunk among themselves, and devour everything that can be eaten. When this is finished they all depart, each one carrying a piece with him. The slayer takes a fresh name, and the king of the huts scratches him in the upper part of the arm with the tooth of a wild beast. When the wound is healed the scar remains visible, which is a great honour. He must lie all that day in his hammock, but they give him a small bow and an arrow, so that he can amuse himself by shooting into wax, lest his arm should become feeble from the shock of the death-blow. I was present and have seen all this with my own eyes. (Hans Staden Part 2, chap 28)

136) Kind reader. I have now described my voyage and journey with all brevity, in order to relate how I fell into the hands of barbarous people, and the manner in which our Saviour, the Lord God, delivered me out of their power when I was without hope. This I have done that all may know that Almighty God can still stretch forth his hand to save and direct his people among the heathen, as he was wont to do in times past, and that all may bless his name and rest upon him in their necessity. For he himself has said: "Call thou upon me in the time of trouble. I will save thee and thou shalt glorify me." Some may say that if I had described all my trials and experiences I might have made a bigger book. That is true, for I could indeed have told much more. But that was not my intention. I have shown here and there what reasons led me to write this book. My mind is to show only how much we owe to God who is with us always to protect us from the day of our birth onwards. (Hans Staden Part 2, concluding address)

137) The truth of Hans Staden's story does not seem ever to have been seriously questioned, although he obviously expected to be classed among the lying travellers. He is careful in his concluding address to the reader—a most convincing document—to mention the names of all Europeans with whom he came into contact, so that sceptics could check his statements. The learned Dryander, his sponsor, was a well-known man in his day, and he and the Landgrave of Hesse seem to have gone thoroughly into the matter, and to have cross-examined the traveller again and again without shaking him. (Malcolm Letts 11)

138) It would be difficult to see how a work of this description could be better arranged. In the first place we have a straightforward narrative of the author's personal adventures and misfortunes, written briefly and without any straining after effect. In the second part we have a treatise on the customs of the Tupinambá, their polity, trade, religion, manufactures and warlike undertakings, and of the flora and fauna of the country. This survey is the result of sustained and penetrating observation, and subsequent accounts have added little to the information given in it. Particularly interesting are the chapters devoted to the marriage ceremonies, government and laws, the personal adornment and religious observances of the people. (Malcolm Letts 9)

139) [Staden] was to witness a good deal of cannibalism. The reader can follow the gruesome details for himself, but the rites and ceremonies observed in connection with the slaying and eating are curious and interesting. The victim was painted and adorned with feathers and his eyebrows were shaved. For a time at least he was well treated. He received a hut and furniture and was provided with a wife. Meanwhile his captors visited him frequently and examined him to see which of his limbs and joints they proposed to claim. His children were reared and might or might not suffer the same fate as the father. When all was ready invitations were sent out to the neighbouring tribes to partake of the feast. The club with which the victim was to be dispatched was adorned with tassels and smeared with pounded egg-shells and then religiously secluded. The executioner painted himself grey with ashes and adorned his body with feathers, and after he had dispatched the prisoner (who was expected to show complete indifference to his fate), blood was drawn from the slayer's arm, and he was forced to retire to his hut for a time and lie in his hammock, amusing himself with a miniature bow and arrow to keep his eye in shape, this practice of seclusion and purification being intended doubtless to protect him from the angry ghosts of his victim. These rites and ceremonies, having been described by an eye-witness, are extremely valuable. Unfortunately the writer has added a wealth of detail which is merely sickening. He was determined that not a fraction of the horrors he had escaped should be lost on his readers. (Malcolm Letts 6-7)

140) Throughout his narrative Hans Staden shows himself as a curious mixture of simplicity and shrewdness. He was a very pious Lutheran and was ready to see the hand of God stretched out for his special safety in every disturbance of nature. The stories of the angry moon in Part I, Chapter XXX: of the miraculous cures (Chapter XXXIV): of the Cross in Chapter XLVI: of the thunderstorm in Chapter XLVII, are all regarded as the inevitable and immediate response to his prayers. He seemed to take the view that Hans Staden's perilous situation had been at last reported in the proper quarter and was now being satisfactorily dealt with. Up to a certain point the careful reader is conscious of an undercurrent of pained surprise, as if the unfortunate victim of fate was asking himself how in a world now purged of heresies such things could be allowed to happen to any pious Lutheran, and that a good deal was due to him if his contract with his Maker was to be honourably fulfilled. (Malcolm Letts 10)

141) Once {Staden] was conscious that God was on his side he was a little inclined to be presumptuous and self-centred. He was convinced, when asked to heal the sick, that his prayers would be answered, but he was seriously perturbed how to act, since he could not decide whether it would be more to his interest to let the sufferers die or live. We could wish that one or two episodes, particularly the episode in Chapter XXXIX, where a slave who had lied about him was killed and eaten, had been related in a different spirit, but it was part of the author's belief that all who wronged him should suffer both in this world and the next, and we must be careful not to judge him unfairly. It is certain that he had to face trials and dangers which would have tried the courage of many braver and more imaginative men. He was not a coward, and he really seems to have been more terrified of being eaten than of being killed. (Malcolm Letts 10)

142) So do I thank the Almighty Creator of the Heavens, the Earth and the Seas, his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, who showed mercy and pity to me among the savage peoples of Brazil called Tupin Imba, eaters of men's flesh, who took me captive and whose prisoner I was for nine months amidst many dangers, and who delivered me in safety through their Holy Trinity by means wholly unlooked for and most wonderful. I thank God also that now, after so much misery and danger, I am once again after many years in these dominions, my beloved home, where I hasten dutifully to give an account of my travels and voyages, which I have described as briefly as may be. I trust that your Highness may be pleased to have read aloud at your leisure the story of my adventures by land and sea, if only on account of God's wonderful mercies vouchsafed to me in my distress. And lest your Highness should think that I have reported untrue things, I venture to offer your Highness at the same time a sponsor for my veracity. To God alone and all in all be the glory. I commend myself to your Highness in all humility. (Hans Staden 18-19)

143) Now in order that this introduction may have an end I will briefly explain why it is that Hans Staden has been moved to complete and print the story of his two voyages. Some may take it amiss, as if the writer desired his own glory or to make a great name for himself. I know that this is not so and that his disposition, as appears from several indications in the history itself, is very different. Such was his misery and so great his adversity, and so constantly was his life in peril and the victim himself without hope, that he had abandoned all expectation of gaining his liberty, or of seeing his home again. Yet God, in whom he trusted and upon whom he called, did not leave him helpless in the hands of his enemies, but was moved also by his prayers to manifest himself to the heathen, that they might see and know that the only true God, mighty and all-powerful, was at hand. To the prayers of the faithful there is neither limit nor restraint, and it pleased God through Hans Staden to show his mighty works among the heathen. This, in truth, cannot be denied. It is known also to all men that sorrow, care, misfortune and sickness turn men's thoughts towards God: then do they cry to him in their despair. Some hitherto among the papists invoke this saint or that holy one, vowing pilgrimages or offerings that they may be saved from their perils. These vows are commonly well kept, except among such as seek to deceive the saints with empty promises. Erasmus Roterodamus in his colloquy on Shipwrecks writes of one who cried in the ship to St. Christopher, whose image, standing some ten ells high like a great Polyphemus, may be seen in Paris, and vowed that if he came safely to land he would offer the saint a wax taper as great as the image itself. His companion who sat by him, knowing his poverty, upbraided him for his false vow, declaring that if he sold all his worldly goods he could not even then buy sufficient wax to make so great a taper. The other made answer, speaking softly lest the saint should hear him: "If he delivers me from this, he will not get so much as a farthing candle from me." (Johannes Dryander 25-26)

144) As I was going through the forest I heard loud yells on either side of me, such as savages are accustomed to utter, and immediately a company of savages came running towards me, surrounding me on every side and shooting at me with their bows and arrows. Then I cried out: "Now may God preserve my soul." Scarcely had I uttered the words when they threw me to the ground and shot and stabbed at me. God be praised they only wounded me in the leg, but they tore my clothes from my body, one the jerkin, another the hat, a third the shirt, and so forth. Then they commenced to quarrel over me. One said he was the first to overtake me, another protested that it was he that caught me, while the rest smote me with their bows. At last two of them seized me and lifted me up, naked as I was, and taking me by the arms, some running in front and some behind, they carried me along with them through the forest at a great pace towards the sea where they had their canoes. As we approached the sea I saw the canoes about a stone's-throw away, which they had dragged out of the water and hidden behind the shrubs, and with the canoes were great multitudes of savages, all decked out with feathers according to their custom. When they saw me they rushed towards me, biting their arms and threatening me, and making gestures as if they would eat me. Then a king approached me carrying the club with which they kill their captives, who spoke saying that having captured me from the Perot, that is to say the Portuguese, they would now take vengeance on me for the death of their friends, and so carrying me to the canoes they beat me with their fists. . . . Then I stood and prayed, expecting every moment to be struck down. But at last the king, who desired to keep me, gave orders to carry me back alive so that their women might see me and make merry with me. For they intended to kill me "Kawewi Pepicke": that is, to prepare a drink and gather together for a feast at which they would eat me. (Hans Staden 61-63)

145) My captors passed by an island and ran the canoes ashore, intending to spend the night there, and they carried me from the canoe to the land. I could scarcely see, for I had been wounded in the face, nor could I walk on account of the wounds in my leg, but could only lie down on the sand. Then they stood round me and boasted that they would eat me. So in mighty fear and terror I bethought me of matters which I had never dwelt upon before, and considered with myself how dark is the vale of sorrows in which we have our being. Then, weeping, I began in the bitterness of my heart to sing the Psalm: "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee." Whereupon the savages rejoiced and said: "See how he cries: now is he sorrowful indeed." (Hans Staden 65-66)

146) Before daybreak we were once more on our way and rowed all day, so that by Vespers we were some two miles from the place where they intended to spend the night. Then great black clouds arose behind me which were terrible to see, and the savages laboured at the oars, striving to reach land and to escape the wind and darkness. But when they saw that their efforts were in vain they said to me: Ne mungitta dee Tuppan do Quabe, amanasu y an dee Imme Ranni me sisse, which is to say: "Speak with your God that we may escape the wind and rain." I kept silence, but prayed in my heart as the savages required of me: "O almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, who from the beginning hast succoured those that call upon thee, now among the heathen show thy mercy to me that I may know that thou art with me, and establish thee among these savages who know thee not, that they may see that thou hast heard my prayer." I lay bound in the canoe and could not turn myself to regard the sky, but the savages looked steadfastly behind them and commenced to say: Oqua moa amanasu, which means: "The great storm is departing." Then I raised myself as best I could and looked back and saw that the clouds were passing, and I praised God. (Hans Staden 67-68)

147) Man-eating creatures belong to a long emblematic tradition of myths, legends, and fantasies demarcating the frontier between civilization and the land of barbarians. Homer, Herodotus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Saint Augustine, Isidore of Seville, Marco Polo, John Mandeville, and Pierre d'Ailly are only a few of those who have offered detailed descriptions of human otherness throughout the centuries. Among those monstrous beings the anthropophagi were the hallmark of the ultimate barbarian, humans so disturbingly foreign they were almost inhuman. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 12)

148) Oswald de Andrade's Movimento Antropofago or Cannibalist Movement of the modernist period (1922-1930) was the first step toward reappropriating the symbolism of the cannibal. Working with the concept of ingestion,Andrade's literary movement advocated the creation of a genuine national culture through the consumption and critical reelaboration of both national and foreign influences. Imported influences were to be digested and reworked until they blended within Brazilian culture and could no longer be distinguished as separate. The purpose was to parody the European trope of America as "The Land of Cannibals" and use it instead to "devour" the techniques and influences originated in developed countries. This would be the basis or raw material for a future synthesis of cultural influences. "Tupy, or not Tupy that is the question" is perhaps the most famous aphorism of the Cannibalist Manifesto that illustrates the synthesis and humor with which Andrade transforms the noble savage into a bad one, who devours and assimilates the European and is therefore feared and dangerous, thus inverting the traditional relationship between colonizer and colonized. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 14)

149) Rather than seek to open up one's territorial frontier to the European civilization in order to ensure progress as Sarmiento and Juan Bautista Alberdi among other Argentine intellectuals had advocated during the nineteenth century, the members of the Brazilian Cannibalist Movement considered the primitive to be the more pure and innocent cultural element. Barbarism in turn was identified with the corruption European modernization had imposed upon Brazilian culture. In this sense, Andrade advocated the return to a mythical past, an age of innocence that lay within the indigenous cultures of Brazil, to reclaim Brazilian identity. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 14)

150) In the 1960's the use of the cannibalist metaphor resurged with the Brazilian Cinema Novo. This movement challenged not only the mainstream mechanisms of cinematic practice, but also more importantly it set out to promote a political and aesthetic agenda that questioned the terms and images used to construct national identities. Cinema Novo arose during a period of traumatic social change. In 1964 a military coup deposed Joao Goulart's government. Four years later another military uprising followed. The 1968 coup installed a hard line military government that spread repression, censorship and torture. In the late 1950's a group of filmmakers such as Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Glauber Rocha, Carlos Diegues, and Nelson Pereira dos Santos began focusing on national themes and problems. Their goal was in part to rewrite the history of Brazil and question their national characteristics through film. With the repression of the 1968 military coup, Cinema Novo entered its "cannibalist-tropicalist" phase (Johnson and Stam, 37). The directors began using allegorical metaphors to continue their ideological quest and to resist censorship. This is where Como era gostoso o meu frances fits in. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 15)

151) In Como era gostoso o meu frances, Pereira dos Santos used the cannibalist trope to illustrate how the alienation and destruction of Brazilian life were directly linked to the idea of economic progress and modernization generated by foreign projects. The film is also an attack on the flawed developmentalist strategies of presidents Juselino Kubitschek (1956-1961), Janio Quadros (1960-61), and Joao Goulart (1961-1964), as well as on the military coup of March 1964 for opening Brazil to the foreign markets as a form of modernization. Focusing on the first years of the colonial period, the film is a carefully crafted cannibalist critique of European colonialism. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 16)

152) In Como era gostoso o meu frances Pereira dos Santos purposefully breaks the alignment between subject and audience as he brilliantly exposes the contrivances of the narrating act. His film plays with the layered readings of how cannibalism has been interpreted throughout the centuries. The camera constantly alternates between different omniscient perspectives as well as the captive's and the Tupinamba's point of view, completely destabilizing the narrative. The audience constantly has to reaccommodate its gaze as the film progresses. This movement enables the film to stress and expand the space between the "documented" acts and their explanations, while exposing the falseness of the "official history." (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 18)

153) What critical readings of this film have not focused on is the subversion that takes place through the relationship between the French Huguenot and his Tupinamba wife. Unlike the model that has been traditionally assigned to women like the Malinche "la madre de la chingada," blamed for enabling the Europeans to gain access to and conquer the "other" culture through her, the woman in this film refuses to give in. At first, Sebiopepe is dedicated to pampering the Frenchman and they seem to become a couple. But when both worlds collide, Sebiopepe makes sure her Frenchman is unable to move outside her realm. Her actions are proof that she refuses to cross the cultural barrier and unite with the white man. She is sure of her identity and will not give in. When it is time for the cannibalist ritual to take place, she does not shed a tear, nor doubt what to do; in fact she appears to look forward to the event as she cautiously instructs him what to do. At this moment she ceases to be a woman and becomes, in the eyes of the captive, a dangerous savage. Consequently, her resistance is not only personal but cultural as well. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 20)

154) According to some critics the Frenchman fails to escape because he has lost his Europeanness and will therefore never really be able to go home again; in the words of Richard Pena, "He is suspended between cultures" (199). But this scene can also be read as a reflection of the place women are assigned in the white man's world. Sebiopepe is seen as a prize possession. She is another object that the Frenchman wants to take back to civilization together with his gold and jewelry. Rather than feeling perplexed by his identity, this scene exemplifies the inability of Europeans to learn anything from their encounter with other cultures. Clearly the Frenchman has not used his captivity to reflect upon cultural differences, much less to try to understand this "other" culture. It has simply been a waiting period during which he has gathered as many objects as his precarious position allowed him. Consequently, he cannot return to civilization empty handed. In order to reverse his position of captive, he must return with as many valued assets as possible: Sebiopepe being one. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 21-22)

155) It is precisely in this act of non-submission on her part that the film offers an alternative to the subservient role of women. For in this instance Sebiopepe is taking charge of her indigenous identity. She does not betray her family for love, as the Hollywood narrative would have women do. It is in this refusal to acquiesce to a traditional European role, that Sebiopepe breaks the stereotype of women. This act is doubly humiliating for the Frenchman, for it is she, a woman, who is in charge of preserving the culture of her tribe; in fact, she is the one who restores the order and does not let the white man possess her nor her culture. (Nina Gervassi-Navarro 22)

156) The official version of the conquest and colonization of Brazil . . . is certainly not what we are being shown. . . . The intertitles consist of quoted extracts from the colonial legacy of documents, letters, and diaries used as ironic, "historical" counterpoints to the events depicted. Often, the action of the film makes us look at, or interpret, these quotations in a new light. (Richard Pena 103)

157) The idea of hidden wealth that almost seems to spring out of the ground is related to the development of Brazil's own economic history, which has been based upon a series of "chance discoveries" of brazilwood, gold, diamonds, rubber, and other materials, which all led to regular boom-and-bust cycles of economic development too well known throughout the Third World. The manipulation of wealth, though, is totally in the hands of the outsiders, the Europeans.. who give value to the wood, pepper, and gold, create a need, and thus a value, for the gunpowder. (Richard Pena 106-7)

158) In one of the final shots of the rehearsal scene, the film cuts to an extremely large close-up of the Frenchman's face -- an unusual spot within the context of this film -- smeared with a reddish dye so that, for the first time, his skin color approaches that of the Tupinamba. Ironically, his assimilation into the tribe occurs on the eve of his own destruction. There really is no "middle ground." Assimilation of a European into the Tupinamba means, essentially, the destruction of the European. (Richard Pena 109)

159) The film would become less a "translated" adaptation of Staden than a subversive retelling of his story; it would treat the native populations of the sixteenth century in realist fashion, but it would ultimately be an experiment in pastiche and intertextuality, offering a political satire about global capitalism and the Brazilian economic "miracle" of the 1960s and 1970s. (Darlene J.Sadlier 192)

160) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman has a more complicated relation to its sources that the usual movie based on a book. It draws on a wide range of other historical narratives besides Staden, and at various junctures it becomes a stylistic hodgepodge . . . . The film's use of colonial history is particularly dense and layered, revealing contradictions in the sources themselves. Throughout it suggests that the historical archive is as riven by conflict as contemporary politics, and it makes clear that the country's past and present-day realities are not distinct. Although the major historical trauma it exposes is a familiar one of European domination and genocide, it suggests that this irreducible violence keeps returning and repeating itself in the here and now; meanwhile it converts the traumatic event described by the Staden text -- the cannabalist act -- into a provocative metaphor for resistance to a modern society of global capital and foreign consumption. (Darlene J.Sadlier 192)

161) The encounter between [the Frenchman] and Seboipep is not idealized. [The Frenchman] shows absolutely no interest in Seboipep, who is not a virgin and whose name in Tupi means "bloodsucker." (Darlene J.Sadlier 199)

162) At the time How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman was made, the Brazilian government was in the midst of a drive to uproot indigenous communities in the interior who were standing in the way of the trans-Amazon highway; these people were being not only physically uprooted, but also violently forced, quite against their inclination or abilities, to become "modern." For Pereira dos Santos the cultural encounter in the 1500s was far from over. If past history were any indication, the chance for the survival of the few remaining Indians looked increasingly bleak. (Darlene J.Sadlier 201)

163) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman offers a subdued, unromantic portrait of a community that avenges any attack on its sovereignty by killing and devouring the invader. The Tupinamba in the film are neither noble-savage heroes of the nineteenth-century European imagination nor the fierce mythic symbols of 1920s literary nationalism. (Darlene J.Sadlier 202)

164) I think that in terms of cinema, How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman turns to be one of the most positive representations of our history, the native Brazilian history, and even the history of the whites who arrived here. Because it’s from a time when the reflection, at least a more deeper reflection, on Latin Americans actually, Brazil’s actuality, this generation of authors who produced works as How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, and other literary works as well, they had a vision of our history, which was a positive one, a constructive one. (Ailton, member of the Krenak tribe DVD commentary)

165) And if we regard today the native Brazilian population, a population which sometimes is calculated as being 300,00 people, and sometimes projected as being 600,000 or 700,000 people in a country like this of 280,000,000 people, the native Brazilians are extinct, if you regard the numbers, all right? But I share a vision with many other people from other tribes, other native Brazilian populations, which are contemporary of Krenak. During half of the 20th century we were still considered an extinct population. We have reached the 21st century. I look back like that, and I think we have crossed the red line, there is no chance of extinguishing us. I mean, our enemies have lost the war. (Ailton, member of the Krenak tribe DVD commentary)

166) The native Brazilians today, in some regions of our country, they live just the way they lived 200, 300 years ago. I am sure that situations like the ones we see in How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman in terms of day-to-day, the beauty of the place, the richness of the place, are still the environment of many of our tribes. . . . So Brazil still has a great richness, that is, the chance to live with the idea of a global integration and to be contemporary with people that still collect, take directly from nature everything they need to live nicely. (Ailton, member of the Krenak tribe DVD commentary)

167) I think it is very important that Brazil keeps learning how to value the cultural heritage of native peoples. We sum up today about 200 families, 200 ethnic groups, this 200, or 220, are a true constellation in the sky. We should be proud of this, and share this with the whole of humanity. This is very beautiful. (Ailton, member of the Krenak tribe DVD commentary)

168) The military dictators in the 1960s and 70s in Brazil staged magnificent spectacles of nationalism -- the Transatlantic highway, the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, and unneeded but costly nuclear program -- to seduce the country to the ideology of the state. Jean’s seduction may contain an allegory of the average Brazilian in 1973. (G. U de Sousa 97)

169) The film shows Jean resigned to his fate, accepting a Tupinamba identity and the seductive ideology of assimilation. Hans Staden, however, vehemently resists assimilation into Tupinamba culture. (G. U de Sousa 93)