Sio-/if in Savao'es. 177 



■would be pricked and lacerated at almost every step 

 of his progress, and probably get bitten by a serpent 

 before the day's end. Yet the Indian passes his life 

 there, and, naked or half naked, explores the un- 

 known wilderness of thorns, and has only his arrows 

 to provide food for himself and his wife and children. 

 He does not get pierced with thorns and bitten by 

 serpents, because his eye is nicely trained to pick 

 them out in time to save liimself . He walks rapidly, 

 but he knows every shade of green, every smooth 

 and crinkled leaf, in that dense tangle, full of snares 

 and deceptions, through which he is obliged to walk ; 

 and much as leaf resembles leaf, he sets his foot 

 where he can safely set it, or, quickly choosing be- 

 tween two evils, where the prickles and thorns are 

 softest, or, for some reason known to him, hurt 

 least. In like manner he distinguishes the coiled-up 

 venomous snake, although it lies so motionless — a 

 habit common to the most deadly kinds — and in its 

 dull imitative colouring is so difficult to be dis- 

 tinguished on the brown earth, and among grey 

 sticks and sere and variegated leaves. 



A friend of mine, Pontana of Buenos Ayres, who 

 has a life-long acquaintance with the Argentine 

 Indians, expresses the opinion that at the age of 

 twelve years the savage of the Pampas has com- 

 pleted his education, and is thereafter able to take 

 care of himself; but that the savage of the Gran 

 Chaco — the sub-tropical Argentine territory border- 

 ing on Paraguay and Bolivia — if left to shift for him- 

 self at that age would speedily perish, since he is 



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