Case file · Folklore / legend
Hans Staden and the speaking maracas
Held captive by the Tupinambá near Ubatuba in 1554, the German gunner Hans Staden described their pajés (shamans) making spirits speak through sacred rattles, maracas, in his 1557 book.
1554 CE · -23.45, -45.08 · status: account
The account
Staden's 'True History' is one of the earliest European accounts of Tupinambá ritual life. Historians treat it carefully because it was also written to entertain and to show God saving him.