ENCAMPMENT OF INDIANS. 109 



some Indians painted with a blue jacket and black CHAP.xvii, 

 buttons. Women advanced in years are fonder of being jjoj^T^ 

 thus ornamented than the younger ladies ; and so ex- pjinting. 

 jDensive is this mode of decoration, that an industrious 

 man can hardly gain enough by the labour of a fortnight 

 to adorn himself with chica, of which the missionaries 

 make an article of traffic. After all, the paintings that Difficulty of 

 cost so much are liable to be effaced by a heavy shower ; removuL 

 although the caruto long resists the action of water, as 

 the travellers found by disagreeable experience ; for 

 having one day in sport marked their faces with spots 

 and strokes of it, it was not entirely removed till after a 

 long period. It has been supposed that this usage pre- 

 vents the Indians from being stung by insects : but this 

 was found to be incorrect. The preference given by the 

 American tribes to the red colour, Humboldt supposes 

 to be owing to the tendency which nations feel to 

 attribute the idea of beauty to whatever characterizes 

 their national comj^lexion. 



The encampment of Pararuraa also afforded the tra- j^'ative 

 vellers an opportunity of examining several animals animals, 

 they had not before seen alive, and which the Indians 

 brought to exchange with the missionaries for fish-hooks 

 and other necessaries. Among these specimens were 

 gallitoes, or rock-manakins, monkeys of different species, 

 of which the titi or Simia sciuroa seems to have been a 

 special favourite with Humboldt. He mentions a very sagacity ot 

 interesting fact illustrative of the sagacity of this creature, the titi. 

 One which he had purchased of the natives distinguished 

 the different plates of a work on natural history so well, 

 that when an engraving which contained zoological re- 

 presentations was placed before it, it rapidly advanced 

 its little hand to catch a grasshopper or a wasp ; which 

 was the more remarkable as the figures were not 

 coloured. Humboldt observes, that he never heard of 

 even the most perfect picture of hares or deer producing 

 the least eflfect upon a hound, and doubts if there be a 

 well-ascertained example of a dog having recognised a 

 fall-length portrait of its master. 



