78 
AMERICANS. 
valour, and none but such as have been thus distinguished may wear 
them. The propensity to indolence is equal among all the tribes of 
Indians. 
The only employment of those who have preserved their indepen- 
dence is hunting and fishing. In some districts the women practise 
agriculture, in raising Indian corn and pompions, of which they form 
a species of aliment by bruising them together. They also prepare 
the ordinary beverage in use among them, taking care at the same 
time of the children, of whom the fathers take no charge. The female 
Indians of all regions of both North and South America, practise what 
is called the urea, a word which among them signifies elevation. It 
consists in throwing forward the hair from the crown of the head 
upon the brow, and cutting it round from the ears to above the^ eye, 
so that the forehead and eyebrows are entirely covered. They tie 
the rest of their hair behind. The males of the higher parts of 
Peru wear long and flowing hair, which they reckon a great ornament. 
In the lower parts they cut it short, on account of the heat of the 
climate. The inhabitants of Louisiana pluck out their hair by the 
Toots, from the crow n of the head forwards, in order to obtain a large 
forehead, denied them by nature. The rest of their hair is cut as 
short as possible, to prevent their enemies from seizing them by it in 
battle, and from easily getting their scalp, should they fall into their 
hands as prisoners. Among the North Americans, it is disgraceful 
to be hairy on the body, they say it likens them to bogs. They there- 
fore pluck it out as fast as it appears. Every nation has its customs. - 
“I have seen an Indian beau with a looking-glass in his hand,” 
says Mr. Jefferson, “ examining his face for hours together, and 
plucking out by the root every hair he could discover, with a kind of 
tweezer made by a piece of fine brass wire, that had been twisted 
round a stick, and which he used with great dexterity." The Indians 
of South America distinguish themselves by modern dresses, in 
which they affect various tastes. Those of the high country, and of 
the valleys in Peru, dress mostly in the Spanish fashion. Instead of 
hats, they wear bonnets of coarse double cloth, the weight of which 
neither seems to incommode them when they go to warmer climates, 
nor does the accidental want of them seem to be felt in situations 
where the most piercing cold reigns. Their legs and feet are always 
bare, if we except a sort of sandals made of the skins of oxen. 
Funeral Fites. 
The force fo their friendship principally appears by the treatment 
of their dead. When any one of the society is cutoff, he is lamented 
by the whole ; on this occasion a thousand ceremonies is practised, 
denoting the most lively sorrow. No business is transacted, how- 
ever pressing, till all the pious ceremonies due to the dead are 
performed. The body is washed, anointed, and painted ; then the 
women lament the loss with hideous bowlings, intermixed ^ith songs 
which celebrate the great actions of the deceased and of his ancestors. 
The men mourn in a less extravagant manner. The whole village is 
present at the interment, and the corpse is habited in its most sump- 
tuous ornaments. Close to the body of the defunct are placed his 
