THE CAINGTJA OF PARAGUAY. 405 



Like the big children they are, they burst into laughter at noth- 

 ings, and laugh immoderately at whatever is new to them. Never 

 shall I forget the hilarity and curiosity which possessed our friends 

 of Puerto Yenezia as they watched me one day changing my cloth- 

 ing. The braves, squatting on their toes or leaning against the 

 wall, pointed at each article of dress, and were greatly amused at 

 the specimens of the refinement of our civilization of which they 

 evidently could not understand the bearing. 



Their musical feeling is still in infancy, and their musical instru- 

 ments are extremely primitive. They play the simplest kinds of 

 airs on a bamboo flute or a guitar rudely imitated from the Para- 

 guayans, and dance or rather jump to them with their feet held 

 together or pushed one before the other, holding the lobes of their 

 ears between the thumb and forefinger. Sometimes the dancers 

 wear also a belt composed of a series of hoofs of animals, which, 

 clattering against one another, make a noise like that of a little bell. 

 They hold a rattle in their hands, shaking it rapidly, which consists 

 of a kind of fiddle-case rudely cut with a knife, containing bits 

 of glass. 



Their feeling of jealousy goes to the extreme, and dominates all 

 other feelings. It is the direct or indirect cause of all the crimes 

 and all the personal and tribal quarrels. The stranger, whom they 

 nevertheless fear, may even sometimes run the danger of his life if 

 he betrays too tender sentiments toward one of the damsels of the 

 woods. In the first village we visited, the mere fact of our stopping 

 a moment to look at the girls in order to study the arrangement of 

 the designs with which they were decorated aroused the susceptibilities 

 of their lawful lovers, and prevented our getting several things we 

 wanted. Further, a young man who had probably not yet succeeded 

 in killing his tapir, turned the bare blade of his machete nervously in 

 his hand at seeing my companion trying the weight of his intended's 

 eardrops before offering to buy them. 



Notwithstanding their entire want of religion, the Caingua have 

 a vague idea of a future life; for after the interment of a deceased 

 relative they deposit on the new grave the arms of the departed and 

 provisions for the journey which they evidently suppose to be pos- 

 sible. Their innate indolence, which only the Jesuit fathers were 

 able to contend with successfully, and their indifference are likely 

 to keep them for a long time backward in civilization. Translated 

 for the Popular Science Monthly from the Bulletin de la Societe 

 Neuchdteloise de Geographic 



