170 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



his personal safety depend on it; and it is not, 

 therefore, strange that every blot of dark color, 

 every moving and motionless object on the hori- 

 zon, tells its story better to him than to a stran- 

 ger; especially when we consider how small a 

 variety of objects he is called on to see and judge 

 of in the level monotonous region he inhabits. 



This quick judging of dimly seen distant things, 

 the eye and mind-achievement of the mounted bar- 

 barian on the unobstructed plains, is not nearly so 

 admirable as that of his fellow-savage in sub- 

 tropical regions overspread with dense vegetation, 

 with animal life in great abundance and variety, 

 and where half the attention must be given to 

 species dangerous to man, often very small in size. 

 In some hot humid forest districts, the European 

 who should attempt to hunt or explore with bare 

 feet and legs would be pricked and lacerated at 

 almost every step of his progress, and probably 

 get bitten by a serpent before the day's end. Yet 

 the Indian passes his life there, and, naked or half 

 naked, explores the unknown wilderness of thorns, 

 and has only his arrows to provide food for him- 

 self and his wife and children. He does not get 

 pierced with thorns and bitten by serpents, be- 

 cause his eye is nicely trained to pick them out in 

 time to save himself. He walks rapidly, but he 

 knows every shade of green, every smooth and 

 crinkled leaf, in that dense tangle, full of snares 

 and deceptions, through which he is obliged to 

 walk ; and much as leaf resembles leaf, he sets his 



