THE SAN BLAS PEOPLE 



doubt if they believed us. In turn, they told 

 us much about themselves, their lives, and 

 their customs; about other San Bias villages, 

 away back in the hills, where the people 

 hunted with blow pipes and poisoned darts 

 and where no white men had ever been; 

 about the origin of the San Bias cayuca, the 

 oddest and, I believe, the best sailing canoe in 

 the world. 



Our phonograph was a never-ending joy 

 and mystery, especially to the boys, who by 

 this time had adopted us and made them- 

 selves masters of the ship. They peered into 

 its vitals and imitated its sounds. Then they 

 fetched reed pipes and made music for us. 

 These pipes were in sets of seven and, in using 

 them, two players faced each other. The 

 tunes were primitive, pastoral, barbaric, as 

 were the dances that went with them. 



The San Bias are suffragists. The woman's 

 position in the household, her voice in affairs, 

 are reminiscent of that female dominance 

 which, we are assured by history sharks, 

 existed anciently. They are an industrious 

 people, too. Every morning, long before day- 

 light, the rising-call runs from house to house, 

 fires flicker, and then, in the first gray dawn, 



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