Chap. HI. 
AMUSEMENTS. 
201 
these indulgences are frequently the cause of death. 
They are very subject to disorders of the liver, dysen- 
tery, 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 become 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 unappropri- 
ated 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 cele- 
brate their own ruder festivals : the people of different 
tribes combining ; 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, especially 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 important point of all, ' 
getting gradually and completely drunk. But he 
