Redmen; some of their Thoughts* 
By the Editor. 
ERY briefly for so wide a subject, I purpose here 
roughly to suggest, for further consideration, 
a chief, perhaps the chief, feature in the, 
naturally very simple, habit of thought of men in one of 
the earliest yet discernible stages of civilization. The 
main interest of this particular feature of early thought 
lies in the probability that from it has developed the very 
complex habit of thought to which our own race has now 
become so accustomed that we are apt to overlook the 
extreme simplicity of the original germ. I shall use in 
illustration of the primitive stage of thought my expe- 
rience of our own Indians of Guiana amongst whom I 
have lived, in some intimacy, now for a considerable 
number of years. 
In a few words I may first re-state the general historic 
and social portion of these Redmen. 
The tra6l on the north-eastern shoulder of the conti- 
nent of South America distinguished under the general 
* This paper is, in substance, an address delivered to the Torquay 
Natural History Society in January, 1886, and is printed in Timehri, 
in the hope that it may be of some interest to colonists.— Ed. 
