On the Aborigines of Brazil. 1 i 



thorax and arms, and astonishes the European by the 

 strength which he displays in his neck and arms in bear- 

 ing immense burdens, and felling gigantic trees. An In- 

 dian willingly undertakes to carry a weight of 110 pounds 

 on his back for ten or twelve hours, if he is attracted by the 

 prospect of getting for his pains a bottle of brandy, or any 

 thing else that he values. Even the strongest negro would 

 not undertake to ply the axe for ten hours against hard 

 tough timber, and after his work was done, dance and feast 

 the whole night, under the intoxicating influence of the 

 drink caohy (afterwards described.) 



Thickness of Skin. 



Along with this great muscular power, the Indian is also 

 endowed with a special thickness and strength of skin. He 

 is subject to a uniform insensible transpiration, but he per- 

 spires much less than the negro or the white man. When in 

 motion, or when occupied in any active labour, the whole 

 surface of his skin shines. Although the determination of 

 blood to the surface is very moderate — yet he attains that 

 shade of colour which resembles burnished copper, and, when 

 Indians are seen dancing in this state, the colour and polish 

 of their skin give them the appearance of living bronze 

 figures, which the European eye views with considerable 

 pleasure, particularly if their black shining hair flying about 

 their shoulders, or their party-coloured ornaments of bird- 

 feathers aid in increasing the strange novelty of the scene. In 

 dancing, however, the Brazilian savage does not produce the 

 immense quantity of perspiration, which in hot countries runs 

 from the forehead and chest of other races of men, and 

 which causes a degree of exhaustion, from which they, espe- 

 cially the white races, are sometime in recovering. 



This comparatively small secretion of perspiration, indeed, 

 in many cases total absence of it, even under considerable 

 corporal exertions, gives the Indian an expression of apathe- 



