316 The Andes and the Amazon. 



the Xegro or Caucasian. Yet a little while, and the race 

 will be as extinct as the Dodo. He has not the supple or- 

 ganization of the European, enabling him to accommodate 

 himself to diverse conditions. Among the Andean tribes 

 there are seldom over five children, generally but one, in a 

 family; and Bates, speaking of Brazilian Indians, saj^s 

 " their fecundity is of a low degree, and it is very rare to 

 find a family having so many as four children."* 



While it is probable that Mexico was peopled from the 

 north, it is very certain that the Tupi and Guarani, the 

 long-headed hordes that occupied eastern South America, 

 came up fi'om the south, moving from the Paraguay to the 

 banks of the Orinoco. From the Tupi nation (perhaps a 

 branch of the Guarani) sprung the multitudinous tribes 

 now dwelling in the vast valley of the Amazon. In such 

 a country — unbroken by a mountain, uniform in climate — 

 we need not look for great diversity. The general char- 

 acters are these : skin of a brown color, with yellowish 

 tinge, often nearly the tint of mahogany ; thick, straight," 

 black hair; black, horizontal eyes; low forehead, some- 

 what compensated by its breadth ; beardless ; of the mid- 

 dle height, but thick-set; broad, muscular chest; small 

 hands and feet; incurious; unambitious; impassive; un- 

 demonstrative ; with a dull imagination and little supersti- 

 tion ; with no definite idea of a Supreme Being, few tribes 

 having a name for God, though one for the " Demon ;" 

 with no belief in a future state ; and, excepting civility, 

 with virtues all negative. The semi-civilized along the 

 Lower Amazon, called Ttcpuyos, seem to have lost (in the 

 language of Wallace) the good qualities of savage life, and 

 gained only the vices of civilization. 



There are several hundred different tribes in Amazonia, 



* We do not infer, however, from this fact alone, that the race is exotic, 

 for the Negroes of Central Africa multiply very slowly. 



