SIGHT IN SAVAGES 163 



to keep the spectacles, and pulled out his money 

 to pay for them there and then, and was very 

 much put out when their owner insisted on having 

 them back. However, shortly afterwards a pair 

 was got for him; and with these on his nose he 

 galloped about the country, exhibiting them to all 

 his neighbors, and boasting of the miraculous 

 power they imparted to his eyes of seeing the 

 world as no one else could see it. 



My Patagonian host and friend, whose intimate 

 knowledge of cards I have mentioned in a former 

 chapter, once informed me that always after the 

 first few rounds of a game he knew some of the 

 cards, and could recognize them as they were be- 

 ing dealt out, by means of certain slight shades 

 of difference in the coloring of the backs. He had 

 turned his attention to this business when very 

 young, and as he was close upon fifty when he 

 imparted this interesting piece of information, 

 and had always existed comfortably on his win- 

 nings, I saw no reason to disbelieve what he told 

 me. Yet this very man, whose vision was keen 

 enough to detect differences in cards so slight that 

 another could not see them, even when pointed 

 out this preternaturally sharp-eyed individual 

 was greatly surprised when I explained to him 

 that half-a-dozen birds of the sparrow kind, that 

 fed in his courtyard, and sang and built their nests 

 in his garden and vineyard and fields, were not 

 one but six distinct species. He had never seen 

 any difference in them : they all had the same cus- 



