Chap. III. AMUSEMENTS. 201 



these indulgences are frequently the cause of death. 

 They are very subject to disorders of the liver, dysen- 

 tery, and other diseases of hot climates, and when any 

 epidemic is about, they fall ill quicker, and suffer more 

 than negroes or even whites. How different all this 

 is with the negro, the true child of tropical climes ! 

 The impression gradually forced itself on my mind that 

 the red Indian lives as a stranger, or immigrant in these 

 hot regions, and that his constitution was not originally 

 adapted, and has not since become perfectly adapted to 

 the climate. It is a case of want of fitness ; other races 

 of men living on the earth would have been better 

 fitted to enjoy and make use of the rich unappropri- 

 ated domain. Unlike the lands peopled by Negro and 

 Caucasian, Tropical America had no indigenous man 

 thoroughly suited to its conditions, and was therefore 

 peopled by an ill-suited race from another continent. 



The Indian element is very prominent in the amuse- 

 ments of the Ega people. All the Roman Catholic 

 holidays are kept up with great spirit ; rude Indian 

 sports being mingled with the ceremonies introduced 

 by the Portuguese. Besides these, the aborigines cele- 

 brate their own ruder festivals : the people of different 

 tribes combiniDg ; for, in most of their features, the 

 merry-makings were originally alike in all the tribes. 

 The Indian idea of a holiday is bonfires, processions, 

 masquerading, especially the mimicry of different kinds 

 of animals, plenty of confused drumming and fifing, 

 monotonous dancing, kept up hour after hour without 

 intermission, and the most important point of all, 

 getting gradually and completely drunk. But he 



