30 



into their respective languages as appellations 

 the most opprobrious. 



The missionary led us into several Indian 

 huts, where an extreme neatness and order pre- 

 vailed. We saw with pain the torments, which 

 the Caribbee mothers inflict on their infants, in 

 order not only to enlarge the calf of the leg, but 

 to raise the flesh in alternate stripes from the 

 ankle to the top of the thighs. Bands of lea- 

 ther, or of woven cotton, are placed like narrow 

 ligatures at two or three inches distant; and 

 being tightened more and more, the muscles 

 between the bands become swelled. Our infants 

 when swaddled suffer much less than these Ca- 

 ribbee children, in a nation which is said to be 

 so much nearer a state of nature. In vain the 

 moiiks of the missions, without knowing the 

 works or the name of Rousseau, attempt to op- 

 pose this ancient system of physical education. 

 Man when just issued from the woods, and who 

 is thought to be so simple in his manners, is far 

 from being docile with respect to his ornaments, 

 and the ideas which he has formed of beauty 

 and propriety. I observed however with sur- 

 prise, that the manner in which these poor 

 children are bound, and which seems to ob- 

 struct the circulation of the blood, does not 

 weaken their muscular movements. There is no 

 race of men more robust, and swifter in running* 

 than the Caribbees. 



