569 



moes whose children are fair, and who ac- 

 quire the Mungal or yellowish tint only from 

 the influence of the air and the dampness. In 

 Guyana, the hordes th^t live in the midst of the 

 thickest forests are generally less tawny than 

 those, that inhabit the shores of the Oroonoko, 

 and are employed in fishing. But this slight 

 difference^, which is alike found in Europe 

 between the artisans of towns and the cultivators 

 of the fields or the fishermen on the coasts, no 

 way explains the problem of the Indios blancos, 

 the existence of those American tribes with the 

 skin of Mestizoes. These are surrounded with 

 other Indians of the woods (Indios del monte), 

 who are of a reddish-brown, although now ex- 

 posed to the same physical influences. The 

 causes of these phenomena are very ancient, and 



* See chap. 9, vol. iii, p. 290—298. The Chevalier 

 Gieseke has recently confirmed all that Crantz had related 

 of the colour of the skin of the Eskimoes. This race (even 

 in the latitude of seventy-five and seventy-six degrees, 

 where the climate is so rigorous) is not in general so dimi- 

 nutive as it was long believed to be. Ross, Voyage to the 

 North, p. 127. 



f Gomara (p. 278) has expressed himself on this point 

 with that precision, which distinguishes his style, and his 

 manner of painting objects. " Los Indios son leonados o 

 membrillos cochos, o tiriciados o castafios por naturaleza y no 

 por desnudez, como pensavan muchos, aunque algo les ayuda 

 para ello ir desnudos." 



