174 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
before his wigwam in the early 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 along 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 
