100 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Tke side next the river is almost perpendicular, and you 

 may easily throw a stone over to the opposite bank. Here 

 there was an opportunity of seeing man in his rudest 

 state. The Indians who frequented this habitation, though 

 living in the midst of woods, bore evident marks of atten- 

 tion to their persons. Their hair was neatly collected, and 

 tied up in a knot; their bodies fancifully painted red, and 

 the paint was scented with hayawa. This gave them a 

 gay and animated appearance. Some of them had on 

 necklaces, composed of the teeth of wild boars slain in 

 the chase ; many wore rings, and others had an ornament 

 on the left arm, midway betwixt the shoulder and the 

 elbow. At the close of day, they regularly bathed in 

 the river below; and the next morning seemed busy in 

 renewing the faded colours of their faces. 



One day there came into the hut a form which literally 

 might be called the wild man of the woods. On entering, 

 he laid down a ball of wax, which he had collected in the 

 forest. His hammock was all ragged and torn ; and his 

 bow, though of good wood, was without any ornament or 

 polish ; " erubuit domino, cultior esse suo." His face was 

 meagre, his looks forbidding, and his whole appearance 

 neglected. His long black hair hung from his head in 

 matted confusion ; nor had his body, to all appearance, 

 ever been painted. They gave him some Cassava bread 

 and boiled fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after 

 left the hut. As he went out you could observe no traces 

 in his countenance or demeanour, which indicated that he 

 was in the least mindful of having been benefited by the 

 society he was just leaving. 



The Indians said that he had neither wife, nor child, 

 nor friend. They had often tried to persuade him to come 

 and live amongst them ; but it was of no avail. He went 

 roving on, plundering the Wild Bees of their honey, and 



