156 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



ticulars lie curiously resembles, is also a nest-builder. 

 His nests, however — scarcely worthy of the name, 

 though they are his only habitation — are even more 

 rudely built than those of the South African savage. 

 They are made by disposing a number of leafy boughs 

 partly around a space of ground varying in extent 

 with the number of the members of the family occu- 

 pying it. 



These boughs form a rampart or wall from three 

 to four feet high, sheltering to some extent the na- 

 tives who sit or who lie down and sleep beneath it. 



The tribes approaching nearest the utterly savage 

 condition of the Australians and the Bushmen are 

 the natives of Terra del Fuego and of Patagonia, and 

 these, too, build nests, consisting merely of shelters, 

 open in front on the side opposite that of the prevail- 

 ing winds. 



Although so immeasurably below us in respect to 

 civilization, these rude tribes can teach us something. 

 Except so far as they have been led astray and taught 

 bad habits by civilized men or tribes who have learned 

 the vices of civilization, they use no intoxicating drug 

 or liquor. There are at the j)resent day few, if any, 

 who have not learned to do so, but in their original 

 savage state they were ignorant of such things, and 

 were in this respect fortunate in their ignorance. 

 Their wants are few and easily supplied, and they 

 live so closely to Nature that their senses in many 

 respects are far keener and more cultivated than ours. 



