AMUSEMENTS 



369 



and they perspire little. No Indian resident of Ega can 

 be induced to stay in the village (where the heat is felt 

 more than in the forest or on the river), for many days 

 together. They bathe many times a day, but do not 

 plunge in the water, taking merely a sitz-hath, as dogs may 

 be seen doing in hot climates, to cool the lower parts of 

 the body. The women and children, who often remain at 

 home, whilst the men are out for many days together 

 fishing, generally find some excuse for trooping off to the 

 shades of the forest in the hot hours of the afternoons. 

 They are restless and discontented in fine dry weather, 

 but cheerful in cool days, when the rain is pouring down 

 on their naked backs. When suffering under fever, 

 nothing but strict watching can prevent them going down 

 to bathe in the river, or from eating immoderate quantities 

 of juicy fruits, although these indulgences are frequently 

 the cause of death. They are very subject to disorders 

 of the liver, dysentery, and other diseases of hot climates, 

 and when any epidemic is about, they fall ill quicker, and 

 suffer more than negroes or even whites. How different 

 all this is with the negro, the true child of tropical climes ! 

 The impression gradually forced itself on my mind that 

 the red Indian lives as a stranger, or immigrant in these 

 hot regions, and that his constitution was not originally 

 adapted, and has not since becom.e perfectly adapted to 

 the climate. It is a case of want of fitness ; other races 

 of men living on the earth would have been better fitted 

 to enjoy and make use of the rich unappropriated domain. 

 Unlike the lands peopled by Negro and Caucasian, Tropical 

 America had no indigenous man thoroughly suited to its 

 conditions, and was therefore peopled by an ill-suited race 

 from another continent. 



The Indian element is very prominent in the amuse- 

 ments of the Ega people. All the Roman Catholic 

 holidays are kept up with great spirit ; rude Indian sports 

 being mingled with the ceremonies introduced by the 

 Portuguese. Besides these, the aborigines celebrate their 

 own ruder festivals : the people of different tribes com- 

 bining ; for, in most of their features, the merry-makings 

 were originally alike in all the tribes. The Indian idea 

 of a holiday is bonfires, processions, masquerading, especi- 

 ally the mimicry of different kinds of animals, plenty of 

 confused drumming and fifing, monotonous dancing, kept 

 up hour after hour without intermission, and the most 



2 A 



