AN EXHAUSTED RACE 
The women possessed considerable endurance. They 
could carry heavy weights for long distances by means of 
a fibre headband resting on the forehead. Under those 
circumstances the body was kept inclined slightly for¬ 
ward. Children were also carried in a similar fashion in 
a sling, only, less practically than among many Asiatic 
and African tribes, the Bororo children were left to dangle 
their legs, thereby increasing the difficulty of carrying 
them, instead of sitting with legs astride across the 
mother’s haunches. I was amazed to see until what age 
Bororo mothers and sisters would carry the young upon 
their shoulders; certainly children of five or six years of 
age were being carried about in this fashion, while such 
hard duties as pounding Indian corn, thrashing beans, 
and hut-building, were attended to. 
Neither in women nor in men was the power of 
resistance in any way to be compared with that of the 
tribes of Central Africa or Asia. The Indian tribes of 
Brazil impressed one as being strong, because one com¬ 
pared them with their neighbours and masters, the 
Brazilians, who were physically one of the weakest, least- 
resisting races I have ever seen. When you compared 
them with some of the healthy savage races elsewhere, 
the Indians did not approach them in endurance and 
quickness of intellect. Do not forget that endurance is 
greatly due to brain power and self-control. The Indian 
races I saw in Brazil seemed to me almost exhausted 
physically, owing perhaps to constant intermarriage 
among themselves. The eyesight of the Bororos, for 
instance, was extremely bad. There were many in every 
aldeja who were almost or absolutely blind. The others 
were nearly all shortsighted. 
The Bororos removed, pulled out, in fact, their 
eyelashes one by one, as they believed it improved their 
sight, especially for seeing at long distances. They all 
suffered more or less from complaints of the eyes. In- 
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