AND VISIT TO THE PURIS AT ST. FIDELIS. 121 



guese, who resides among the Puris. From this place the way led 

 up a gentle ascent, and we soon reached the huts of many savages, 

 where we were again attacked by a number of half-starved dogs. The 

 Puris are said to have originally received this animal, which they call 

 joare, from the Europeans, and I found it among all the native tribes 

 on the east coast *. 



In the huts there were great numbers of women and children ; and 

 in some of them several sleeping-nets, though in general there was 

 only one in each hut. A Puri, on my offering him a knife, took 

 down his sleeping-net and delivered it to me : others bartered away 

 the bands of apes'-skin round their forehead, their necklaces, and the 

 like. Mr. Freyreiss entered into a negociation with one of the Puris 

 for the purchase of his son, and offered him various articles in ex- 

 change. The women consulted aloud, in the singing tone peculiar 

 to them, and some of them with gestures indicative of disapprobation ; 

 most of their words ended in a, and were drawled out, which pro- 

 duced a very loud and singular concert. It was evident that they 

 were unwilling to part with the boy ; but the head of the family, an 

 elderly grave-looking man with good features, spoke a few words with 

 great emphasis, and then stood for some time lost in thought with, 

 his eyes fixed on the ground : a shirt, two knives, a handkerchief, 

 some strings of coloured glass beads, and some small mirrors, were 

 successively given to him : he could not withstand this temptation : 

 he went into the wood, and soon returned leadmg by the hand a boy, 

 who was however ugly, and in some measure deformed, and was 

 therefore rejected ; hereupon he brought a second, who was accepted. 

 It is incredible with what indifference this boy heard his fate. He 

 did not change countenance, or even take leave of his friends, but 



* Hnniboldt found in Spanish America many dogs without hair ; but we did not meet with 

 any such on this coast. 



