56 TlMEHRI. 
that preparations had been made for a paivvarie feast, 
which was to take place that night. A benab had been 
prepared for the entertainment, by having the sides, 
which are usually open, thatched round. Unfortunately 
it was the next one to ours. The people living here were 
all pure-blooded Indians, but shortly after our arrival 
a negro and a half-breed came, and several more arrived 
in corials during the evening. No Indians were among 
these guests or strangers. It being Saturday, the party 
broke up at midnight, by which time there had 
been abundant evidence shown by the vomiting 
that the usual indulgence to excess had been 
observed. Whether paiwarie feasts, regarded as purely 
an Indian institution, be an evil or not to the 
race, there can be no question that negroes and 
half-breeds use them to corrupt and demoralize 
the people. There was no mirth or dancing ; it was 
simply a drinking bout, and the conversation was most 
depraved and vile. The Indians appeared to take no part 
in it beyond listening and indulging in much empty 
laughter when the spectators appealed directly to them. 
Immorality is not an Indian vice ; whatever else they 
be chargeable with, all travellers attest their compa- 
rative innocence and pure-mindedness ; and the attempts 
made to debauch them are acts of vandalism. 
It is not surprising that witnesses of these scenes should 
question the benefit derived by the red-skinned population 
of our forests from intercourse with civilization. 
As I turned my specimens next morning into aired 
paper, the Indians, men and women, stood around and 
looked on with apparent interest, mentioning by name in 
