1891. J 
249 
[Cravvtoid. 
small “milpas” or patches for growing maize. They do not fence 
their corn patches. They plant corn by making holes in the soil 
with pointed sticks, and they cultivate with long knives (about 
2 1-2 feet long, called “machetes” (and made in Hartford, Conn., 
U. S. A.) by cutting down the weeds once or twice during each 
season. Two crops are usually grown each year on the same 
ground ; also, they grow in the narrow well-watered valleys small 
patches of plantains, bananas, etc. {Musa paradisica , Musa sapi- 
entum , etc.) Also, with bows and arrows, they kill wild turkeys, 
wild hogs (“Javerlies,” “Worras”) , etc., etc. Also, find on the 
cerros large quantities of excellent quality fruits, as Sapotas 
{Chrysophellum Acras-Sapote) , Anonas {Anona squamosa , etc.) 
They are usually well formed, 6 ft. 6 in. to 6 ft. 8 in. tall, are 
active, and appear strong and healthy, but they are dying out 
rapidly (I estimate not over 275 to 800 now living), and if this 
be the people from whose ancestral name “America” has been 
derived, — then, ere long, they will not be numbered among the 
living, proud claimants of that great name emblazoned on one of 
the World’s Hemispheres. 
The Amerriques Indians are unusually reserved as to their tra- 
ditions, history, etc. None of the present generation appear to 
know or care about the history of their tribe, none but the very 
old ones, and there are very few of those who remember legends, 
traditions, etc. In 1888 I had two old men with me, under good 
treatment, for over a month. Then I remained for several days 
in one of their villages, 5 to 7 small thatched roofs, huts with 
brush walls on one or two sides, before succeeding in getting the 
old men to relate some of their traditions. Their statements en- 
abled me afterward to question other old Indians of the Amerri- 
ques, Mosquitos, and Teucos tribes. There are some Indian 
mounds near the Pueblos of Acoyapa and La Libertad ; also near 
Cerro Amerrique, and the Indians were perfectly willing, for small 
pay, to open the mounds for me. They did not appear to know or 
believe that the mounds were the tombs of their ancestors ; but I 
was then (1888 and 1889) too much hurried by other Natural 
History investigations to give the time necessary to open and care- 
fully examine the contents of the mounds. 
There was almost a perfect correspondence in the following 
tales told me by each the Amerriques, Mosquitos, and Teucos 
Indians ; in many other traditions, legends, related to me by those 
three tribes there was no marked correspondence. 
