THE INDIANS OF GUIANA. 49 
if he can prove the misdeed, nay, even merely on 
suspicion ;—with others indemnification is allowed, the 
offended party being permitted to bed with the wife 
of the offender as often as the latter has laid with 
the offended party’s wife, others exchange wives, by 
mutual consent, for a few months, and that time 
elapsed, retake their own. They are averse to steal- 
ing, though very nimble and handy; confidence with 
them is so great that nothing is locked up, the doors 
of their huts constantly remaining open (the Negroes 
on the contrary, a thievish set of people, mistrust each 
other, always locking their huts, with a lock somewhat 
curiously made by them of wood) possessing nothing 
costiy which they could wish to hide, but a little basket 
they call Paga//. All Indians are indolent and lazy, as 
we have before stated, and do nothing but hunt and fish 
and cut timber in the forest, this they square and drag 
to the water sides, for which they allow themselves fora 
small pittance to be employed by the Europeans, the 
women and children settling on the estates. They are 
most willing, if you treat them well, but love liberty ; 
they do not like to be ordered, or treated like a slave, 
as then they do everything wrong that they are 
desired to do; for instance, if sent to hunt, they will 
fish, and so vice versa, whereas everything asked of them 
in a friendly manner, they willingly execute; every 
morning they and their children wash and bathe them- 
selves in the river. They are often obliged to go hunting 
for their daily food, of which they are at the same time 
great amateurs as well as judges. They have several 
sorts of dogs, who from their youth are trained to every 
sort of game ; they are small, lean, and ugly to the sight, 
G 
