140 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART 



convenience, but finding the taste excellent. Some soun< 

 which are agreeable to one people produce very unpleasant 

 sensations in others. The inhabitants of Bouka (Solomon's 

 Islands) were enchanted by the sounds of the violin, which 

 caused the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land to stop their 

 ears. 1 Fiddles and flutes produced no impression whatever 

 upon the Esquimaux. 2 Beshuanas, who for the first time 

 heard a missionary sing, began to shed tears. 3 This applies 

 to other sensations. The Indians of tierra firma, when 

 Columbus came to them, found the odour of brass very 

 pleasant. 4 The Esquimaux in Prince Regent Bay, who eat 

 raw putrid flesh, rejected with disgust, biscuit, salt meat, and 

 spirituous liquors. 5 



The sense of smell is described as well developed among the 

 native Americans. Azara 6 speaks of the great acuteness of 

 sight and hearing among the Charruas, and Dobrizhofler, 7 tells 

 extraordinary things of the sight of the Abiponians. It de- 

 serves to be further investigated as an abnormal fact, that most 

 Indians of the northern parts of the United States seem to be 

 unable to distinguish green from blue, and that the western 

 tribes have only one term for these two colours. 8 Among the 

 languages of Central America, green and blue are also desig- 

 nated in the Quiche, Pocouchi, and Cacchiquel dialects by the 

 same term, namely, " rax." 9 The acuteness of smell in this 

 race is still more remarkable; so that the Caribs and Peru- 

 vians can distinguish the white, the Negro, and the American 

 by the smell, and have different names for the various odours, 10 

 like the Bedouins, who track strayed camels by the smell. 11 The 

 eastern neighbours of the Botocudes, the Machacares, though 



1 Labillardiere, ii, p. 50. 



2 Seeman, " R. um d. Welt/' ii, p. 67, 1853. 



3 Livingstone, i, p. 192. 



4 Herrera, " Hist, gen.," i, pp. 3, 11. 



5 J. Ross, " Entdeckungreise um Baffin's Bay ausz.," pp. 46, 52, 54, 1820. 



6 " Voy. dans 1'Am. merid.," ii, p. 9, 1809. 



7 Loc. cit., ii, p. 24. 



8 Kohl, Kitscbi-Gami," i, p. 25, 1859. 



9 Ximenes, " Hist, del origen de los indios de Guat.," ed. Scherzer, p. 15, 

 note. 



10 Labat, " Nouv. voy. aux lies de 1'Am.," i, p. 157, 1724; Humboldt, "Neu- 

 Spanien," i. p. 245. 



11 Burckhardt, p. 300. 



