Chap. III. 
A YOUNG SAVAGE. 
195 
chased) 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 in- 
terior of South America. His face was of regular, oval 
shape, but his glistening black eyes had a wary, dis- 
trustful expression, 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 man^ 
dioca-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 excursions, and 
