620 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
ing of the yellow with the black and the white races. The negro of 
Panama proper is the descendant of the original African slave and 
in some remote places high up in the hills are to be found a rather 
wild type, whose ancestors were the cimarrons (a term equivalent 
to that of “ Maroon” as used in Jamaica). The lives of these negroes 
are very picturesque, existing as they do in a most primitive fashion 
in their palm thatch huts surrounded by a riot of gorgeous flowering 
vines and plants. In a small nearby clearing a little yucca, maize, 
frijoles, bananas, and tobacco are cultivated, and about the huts are a 
few chickens and a pig usually fraternizing with the black babies on 
the dirt floor. Often the shacks have no walls at all, simply consist- 
ing of a shelter from sun and rain supported by four bamboo poles. 
The bushman seldom has any need for money, as he obtains by barter 
the only articles necessary to his needs with which nature does not 
supply him. <A few, very few, clothes and a machete, used to cut 
his trail and build his house and employed also as his weapon, are 
-the only things he must obtain from the villages. The utensils and 
retainers are gourds or calabashes; seldom, if ever, is any pottery 
seen in these homes. If the head of the family works at all, he gath- 
ers a little rubber or burns charcoal, occasionally descending to dis- 
pose of it into the far-off settlement. 
The natives of the Isthmus in general, even in the larger towns, 
live together without any marriage ceremony, separating at will and 
dividing the children. As there is little or no personal property, 
this is accomplished amicably as a rule, though should disputes arise 
the alcalde of the district is appealed to, who settles the matter. 
This informal system is always stoutly defended by the women, even 
more than by the men, for, as among all people low in the scale of 
civilization, it is generally held that the women receive better treat- 
ment when not bound and therefore free to depart at any time. 
Recently an effort has been made to bring more of the inhabitants 
under the marriage laws, with rather amusing results in many in- 
stances. The majority of the population is nominally Catholic, but 
the teachings of the church are only vaguely understood, and its prac- 
tices consist in the adoration of a few battered images of saints whose 
particular degree of sancitity is not even guessed at and who, when 
their owners are displeased with them, receive rather harsh treatment, 
as these people have usually no real idea of Christianity beyond a 
few distorted and superstitious beliefs. After the widespread sur- 
veys of the French engineers, a sincere effort was made to re-Chris- 
tianize the inhabitants of the towns in Darien as well as elsewhere, 
for, until this time, nothing had been done toward their spiritual 
welfare since the days of the early Jesuits. In the last thirty years 
spasmodic efforts have been made to reach the people with little result, 
and, excepting at Penonome, David, and Santiago, there are few 
