Chap. V. ABSENCE OF DOMESTICABLE ANIMALS. 193 



is no lack in the Amazonian forests of tameable 

 animals fit for human food ; the tapir, the paca, the 

 ciitia, and the curassow turkeys, are often kept in 

 houses and become quite as tame as the domesticated 

 animals of the old world ; but they are useless from 

 not breeding in confinement. Curassow birds are often 

 seen in the houses of Indians ; one fine species, the 

 Mitu tuberosa, becoming so familiar that it follows 

 children about wherever they go ; it will not pro- 

 pagate, however, in captivity. It is shown to be not 

 wholly the fault of the natives in this case, by their 

 valuing the common fowl, which has been imported 

 from Europe and adopted everywhere, even by remote 

 tribes on rivers rarely visited by white men. It is, 

 however, treated with little attention, and increases 

 very slowly. The Indians do not show themselves so 

 sensible of the advantages derivable from the ox, 

 sheep, and hog, all of which have been introduced into 

 their country. They seem unable to acquire a taste 

 for their flesh, and the management of the animals 

 in a domesticated state is evidently unsuited to their 

 confirmed habits. The inferiority of the native animals 

 compared with those of the old world in regard to 

 capability of breeding in confinement, to which, accord- 

 ing to this view, is originally owing the defect in the 

 Indian character regarding the domestication of animals, 

 has been brought about, probably, in some way not easily 

 exj^licable, by the domination of the forest. It has been 

 lately advanced by ethnologists, that where dense 

 forests clothe the surface of a country, the native 

 races of man cannot make any progress in civilisation. 



VOL. I. 



