224 AN INDIAN CUSTOM 
own hammocks. He wanted to know what the fuss 
was all about, and they made him understand that 
they must lie north and south in order to sleep, and 
trees were not always found growing in such positions 
as to enable them all to swing the hammocks in the 
way they wished. He tried to laugh them out of such 
a fantastic idea, as he imagined it, and asked them 
how they accounted for the fact that he could sleep 
well enough in any position. This had no effect on 
them; they said he "was different"; and if there 
were not enough trees standing north and south at 
convenient distances apart to hang all the hammocks 
those who failed to find a place would make their 
beds on the ground, despite the fact that these 
Indians hate sleeping on the ground in the forest. 
He came to the conclusion that it must be a 
superstitious notion of theirs. 
These memories of my friend put it in my mind 
to interrogate on the subject some of the famous 
travellers who have lived with or seen a good deal 
of savage and primitive peoples in various parts of 
the world. The reply has almost in all instances 
been that, although they had heard all about the 
north-and-south position as restful to many persons 
in the civilised world, it never occurred to them to 
make inquiries on the subject among savages. That, 
alas! is just the answer I should have had to make 
if the same question had been put to me. The 
subject was not in my mind when I had inter- 
course with the pampas Indians and the nomad 
Tehuelches in Patagonia. 
