THE PARAGUAS. 425 



If the likeness is good, so much the worse it is, they fancy, 

 half alive, at the expense of the sitter. So much life, they 

 argue, could only be put in the picture by taking it away 

 from the original. Again, they fancy that if the picture were 

 injured, by some mysterious connection the original would 

 suffer also. But perhaps the oddest notion of all is recorded 

 by Catlin. He excited great commotion among the Sioux by 

 drawing one of their great chiefs in profile. "Why was 

 half his face left out," they asked ; " Mahtocheega was never 

 ashamed to look a white man in the face." Mahtocheega 

 himself does not seem to have taken any offence, but Shonka, 

 The Dog, took advantage of the idea to taunt him. " The 

 Englishman knows," he said, " that you are but half a man ; 

 he has painted but one-half of your face, and knows that 

 the rest is good for nothing." This view of the case led to 

 a fight, in which poor Mahtocheega was shot; and as ill- 

 luck would have it, the bullet by which he was killed tore 

 away just that part of the face, which had been omitted in 

 the drawing. This was very unfortunate for Mr. Catlin, 

 who had great difficulty in making his escape, and lived 

 some months after in fear for his life ; nor was the matter 

 settled until both Shonka and his brother had been killed, in 

 revenge for the death of Mahtocheega. 



The Paraguay Indians. 



The Indians of Paraguay have been described by Don Felix 

 de Azara,* who lived a long time among them. He found 

 them divided into several different nations or tribes, with at 

 least forty distinct languages, and with different customs. 

 Some of them lived by fishing, but the greater number 

 depended for their subsistence on the wild horses and cattle, 

 and must therefore have had different habits before the dis- 



* Voyages dans 1'Amerique Meridionale, 1809. 



