174 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



before his wigwam in the eavly morning he is never 

 observed to trombone his newspaper. 



The reader may spare himself the trouble of 

 smiling, for this is not mere supposition ; in this case 

 observation came first and reflection afterwards, for 

 I happen to know something of savages from ex- 

 perience, and when they were using their eyes in 

 their way, and for their purposes, I used mine for 

 my purpose, which was different. It is true that the 

 redskin will point you out an object in the distance 

 and tell its character, and it will be to your sight 

 only a dark-coloured object, which might be a bush, 

 or stone, or animal of some large kind, or even a 

 house. The secret of the difference is that his eye 

 is trained and accustomed to see certain things, 

 which he looks for and expects to find. Put him 

 where the conditions are new to him and he will be 

 at fault; or, even on his native heath, set him before 

 an unfamiliar or unexpected object, and he will show 

 no superiority over his civilized brother. I have 

 witnessed one instance in which not one but five 

 men were all in fault, and made a wrong guess ; 

 while the one person of our party who guessed cor- 

 rectly, or saw better perhaps, was a child of civiliza- 

 tion and a reader of books, and, what is perhaps 

 even more, the descendant of a loug line of bookish 

 men. This amazed me at the moment, for until then 

 my childlike faith in the belief of Humboldt, and of 

 the world generally, on the subject had never been 

 disturbed. Now I see how this curious thing 

 happened. The object was at such a distance that 



