THE INDIANS OF PERU. 315 



ludians of the Pampa del Sacramento and adjoining regions of the mus- 

 cular delineation in the limbs is very characteristic; they seem to be- 

 cushioned with adipose matter, which gives a roundness which does not 

 disappear even when performing an act of muscular exertion, and the 

 contrast between this race and the negro of Brazil is very striking. This 

 roundness of figure is continued in the mixed breeds of Indian and white. 

 One of the most frequent and severely painful affections among the 

 ludian races is what is known as "cold abscesses" which form in and 

 under the muscular tissue of the body. They give rise to enormous depos- 

 its of pus, which entail great debility on the individual, and which are these 

 adipose tissues breaking down, no doubt, under iulluences of depressed 

 vitality. Tliis softness of the muscular system is also noticed in their 

 hands, which, although in incessant use of the paddle, never seem to 

 acquire that horny hardness to be found among a laboring class in more 

 open and temperate regions. In the tribes living on the MaraGon bor- 

 ders, about the Ccayali mouth, the nose has a tendency to spread con- 

 siderably at the nostril, nor has it the arched appearance to be seen 

 among the Couibos and others living higher up on the Ucayali River. 

 The color of the skin, too, is more inclined to brown than red, and the 

 prominence of the cheek-bones is greater. A noteworthy fact among the 

 half-breeds — the offspring of the Spanish-Peruvian descendant and the 

 Indian of the Mou taSa of Peru — is the great general resemblance there is to 

 the Chinese type, so much so as to make us often doubt whether there 

 may not be sometimes a blood kinship. This resemblance is found in 

 the oblique position of the eye, the yellow-white complexion, and tbe 

 shape of the nose. This resemblance is one of the most common features 

 observed by strangers who are thrown among the half-castes of this 

 region. 



The different dialects spoken by the tribes on the Marauon, Ucayali, and 

 Huallaga Elvers, where the Indians have been for some time in con- 

 tact with the white or half white Hispano-American, are very much inter- 

 mingled in conversation with the Spanish language, so that persons who 

 are familiar with this latter are enabled sometimes to partially understand 

 the subject when listening to the natives. The Mestizos who talk with 

 the natives always use the Spanish largely in their sentences. I was 

 also told that the Quichua spoken in that part of Peru was much cor- 

 rupted, sometimes so much so as not to be intelligible to those speaking 

 the purer form in use about Cuzco. 



