o 



80 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



half-breed's moustache, when that natural ornament 

 is permitted to grow, and which, is ■ composed of 

 thick bristles standing out like a cat's whiskers. 

 The mouth was the marvellous feature, for it was 

 twice the size of an average mouth, and the two lips 

 were alike in thickness. This mouth did not smile, 

 but snarled, both when he spoke and when he 

 should have smiled; and when he snarled the whole 

 of his teeth and a part of the gums were displayed. 

 The teeth were not as in other human beings — 

 incisors, canines, and molars : they were all exactly 

 alike, above and below, each tooth a gleaming white 

 triangle, broad at the gum where it touched its 

 companion teeth, and with a point sharp as the 

 sharpest-pointed dagger. They were like the teeth 

 of a shark or crocodile. I noticed that when he 

 showed them, which was very often, they were not 

 set together as in dogs, weasels, and other savage 

 snarling animals, but apart, showing the whole 

 terrible serration in the huge red mouth. 



After getting his gin he joined in the boisterous 

 conversation with the others, and this gave me an 

 opportunity of studying his face for several minutes, 

 all the time with a curious feeling that I had put 

 myself into a cage with a savage animal of horrible 

 aspect, whose instincts were utterly unknown to 

 me, and were probably not very pleasant. It was 

 interesting to note that whenever one of the others 

 addressed him directly, or turned to him when speak- 

 ing, it was with a curious expression, not of- foar, 

 but partly amusement and partly something else 

 which I could not fathom. Now, one might think 

 that this was natural enough purely on account of 



