302 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



studied. It has been said that "the face is the 

 index to the mind," and however one may be in- 

 clined to dispute the inheritance or continuity of 

 mind, he cannot say anything against the per- 

 petuation of features. A particular shape of the 

 nose, a curl of the lip, more or less deeply-set eyes, 

 and a thousand little tricks and idiosyncrasies, are 

 continually showing us that the father or mother 

 lives again in the child. In some cases, where the 

 likeness to the immediate parents is not obvious, it 

 may be found in some remote ancestor, and if we 

 only had their portraits, no doubt by careful study 

 we should be able to trace almost every feature 

 to its source. Even the palms of the hands and 

 soles of the feet have peculiar lines which run 

 in families, and go to make up a physiognomy, 

 every part of which, if we could discover it, has a 

 meaning. 



Like a composite photograph, where one picture 

 overlies another, and all go to make up the whole, 

 the records of all ages are permanently fixed on 

 every man and woman. It naturally follows that 

 the latest impressions are strongest, and therefore 

 children will be more like their fathers and mothers 

 than more remote ancestors. Nevertheless, every 

 now and again the latent characters come to the 

 front, as they are always likely to do, and you can 



