306 DOTTINGS ON THE KOADSIDE. [Chap. XIX.—B. P. 
themselves is “Waikna” “man,” and all the other 
tribes imitate them in this conceit; indeed, it is a com¬ 
mon practice amongst the Indians of the American 
continent, from the dwellers furthest north, the Esqui¬ 
maux, who call themselves “ Innuit ” “ men,” par ex¬ 
cellence, as far south as the Araucanians, the Pata¬ 
gonians, and even the wretched natives of Tierra del 
Fuego. 
In the case of the Mosquito Indians, I can only say 
that they deserve their assumed title, for they are 
certainly true as steel, and as canoe-men I have never 
met their equals; they think nothing of bringing 
their frail cockleshell off to a ship in weather such as 
no boat could live in. I remember once, to the ex¬ 
treme astonishment of one of them, taking up his foot 
like a blacksmith about to shoe a horse, and carefully 
examining it, to see if its owner was weh-footed, so 
as to account in some measure for the man’s amphi¬ 
bious performances. 
Some of the customs of the aborigines are curious, 
especially those practised at births, deaths, and mar¬ 
riages ; the inevitable mushla is present on each occa¬ 
sion, when the men imbibe it until they become 
hopelessly drunk. 
Their marriage rites are of the simplest. A girl at 
a very early age, say between eight and nine, is be¬ 
trothed to a young man, who at once takes up his re¬ 
sidence in the house of her parents, whom he assists 
until such time as his lady-love is old enough to he 
married, when, without any ceremony, they are recog¬ 
nized as man and wife. The young couple sometimes 
