A YOUNG SAVAGE 



36s 



of their faces. The principal cause of their decay in num- 

 bers seems to be a disease which always appears amongst 

 them when a village is visited by people from the civilized 

 settlements — a slow fever, accompanied by the symptoms 

 of a common cold, * defluxo,' as the Brazilians term it, 

 ending probably in consumption. The disorder has been 

 known to break out when the visitors were entirely free 

 from it ; the simple contact of civilized men, in some 

 mysterious way being sufficient to create it. It is generally 

 fatal to the Juris and Passes : the first question the poor, 

 patient Indians now put to an advancing canoe is * Do 

 you bring defluxo ? ' 



My assistant, Jose, in the last year of my residence at 

 Ega, ' resgatou ' ('ransomed', the euphemism in use for 

 purchased) two Indian children, a boy and a girl, through 

 a Japura trader. The boy was about twelve years of age, 

 and of an unusually dark colour of skin : he had, in fact, 

 the tint of a Cafuzo, the offspring of Indian and negro. It 

 was thought he had belonged to some perfectly wild and 

 houseless tribe, similar to the Pararauates of the Tapajos, 

 of which there are several in different parts of the interior 

 of South America. His face was of regular, oval shape, 

 but his glistening black eyes had a wary, distrustful ex- 

 pression, like that of a wild animal ; and his hands and 

 feet were small and delicately formed. Soon after his 

 arrival, finding that none of the Indian boys and girls in 

 the houses of our neighbours understood his language, he 

 became sulky and reserved ; not a word could be got from 

 him until many weeks afterwards, when he suddenly 

 broke out with complete phrases of Portuguese. He was 

 ill of swollen liver and spleen, the result of intermittent 

 fever, for a long time after coming into our hands. We 

 found it difficult to cure him, owing to his almost invincible 

 habit of eating earth, baked clay, pitch, wax, and other 

 similar substances. Very many children on the upper 

 parts of the Amazons have this strange habit ; not only 

 Indians, but negroes and whites. It is not, therefore, 

 peculiar to the famous Otomacs of the Orinoco, described 

 by Humboldt, or to Indians at all, and seems to originate 

 in a morbid craving, the result of a meagre diet of fish, 

 wild-fruits, and mandioca-meal. We gave our little 

 savage the name of Sebastian. The use of these Indian 

 children is to fill water- jars from the river, gather fire- wood 

 in the forest, cook, assist in paddling the montaria in 



