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 



