Savages. 221 



The women were neai'ly nude ; the man (there was only 

 one) had on a sleeveless frock reaching to the knees, made 

 from the bark of a tree called llanchama. All were desti- 

 tute of eyebrows ; their hair was parted in the middle, and 

 their teeth and lips were dyed black. They had rude pot- 

 tery, peccari meat, and wooden lances to sell. Like all the 

 Napo Indians, they had a weakness for beads, and they 

 wore necklaces of tiger and monkey teeth. They were 

 stupid rather than brutal, and probably belonged to a de- 

 graded tribe of the great Zaparo family. With Darwin, 

 "one's mind hurries back over past centuries, and then 

 asks, could our progenitors have been men like these ? — 

 men whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible 

 to us than those of the domesticated animals ; men who do 

 not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to 

 boast of human reason, or, at least, of arts consequent on 

 that reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or 

 paint the difference between savage and civilized man. It 

 is the difference between a wild and tame animal; and 

 part of the interest in beholding a savage is the same which 

 would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, 

 the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros 

 wandering over the wild plains of Africa." 



On the morrow our falcon-eyed Indians whispered " cu- 

 cAe" long before we saw any thing.* Williams went ashore 

 and came upon a herd of peccaries, killing two. The pec- 

 cari is a pugnacious, fearless animal. It is not frightened 

 by the noise of fire-arms, and when wounded is a dangerous 

 foe ; but captured when young, it is easily tamed. It has a 

 higher back than the domestic hog, and cleanlier habits ; an 

 odoriferous gland on the loins, and three-toed hind feet. 

 We preserved the skins for science and a ham for the 

 table ; the rest we gave to our crew and fellow- voyagers, 



* In the Quichua of Quito the peccari is called saino. 



