The Human Race
TextFig. 211 represents the encampment of these Indians visited by M. de Girardin: fig. 212 is a sketch of one of their horsemen, and fig. 213 a likeness of a Sioux warrior, all from the pencil of the same gentleman.
M. de Girardin happened to go to another camp, that of an old chief of the same tribe. It consisted of five or six tents, conical in shape, and made of bison-skins. Remarkable for their whiteness and cleanliness these habitations were covered with odd paintings which portrayed warriors smoking the calumet, horses, stags, and dogs. Numerous freshly scalped locks were hanging at the end of long poles. At the side of each tent, a kind of tripod supported quivers, shields of ox-hide, and spears embellished with brilliant plumage. A few young warriors of strongly marked features, with aquiline noses and herculean forms, but hideously daubed in black and white paint, were engaged in firing arrows at a ball which was rolled along the ground or thrown into the air.
212. – SIOUX WARRIOR.
The chiefs made the travellers seat themselves on skins of bears and bisons, and conversed with the interpreter, whilst M. de Girardin remained exposed to the curiosity of the young folks, women, and children. The girls ventured so far as to search his pockets and extract from them his knife, pencils, and notebook. The most inquisitive, a fine girl with very soft eyes and magnificent teeth, perceiving he had a long beard wished to assure herself that he was not shaggy all over like a bear, when the traveller took it into his head to put a little powder into the hand of the pretty inquisitor and lit it by means of a glass lens, an incident which gave a tremendous fright to the assemblage.
213. – A SIOUX CHIEF.
During a journey to the north-east of America in 1867, M. L. Simonin had an opportunity of visiting a Sioux village, and we avail ourselves of a few of his descriptions. It consisted of about a hundred huts, made with poles and bison skins, or pieces of stitched cloth. The entrance to them was by a low narrow hole covered over with a beaver skin. A fire blazed in the centre of each hovel, and around it were pots and kettles for the repast. The smoke which escaped at the top rendered this abode intolerable. Beds, mattresses, cooking utensils, quarters of wild bison, some raw, others dried and smoked, were scattered here and there. Half-naked children, girls and boys, scampered about outside, as well as troops of dogs that constituted at once their protectors, their vigilant sentinels, and their food.
M. Simonin went inside many of the huts, where warriors were silently playing cards, using leaden balls for stakes. Others, accompanied by the noise of discordant singing and tambourines, were playing at a game resembling the Italian “mora,” the score of which was marked with arrows stuck in the ground. Some tents, in which sorcery, or “great medicine,” was being practised, were prohibited to the visitor. The women were sitting in a ring round some of the wigwams, doing needle-work, ornamenting necklaces or mocassins with beads, or tracing patterns on bison skins.
Some old matrons were preparing hides stretched on stakes, by rubbing them with freestone and steel chisels set in bone handles. The squaws of the Sioux, on whom, moreover, all domestic cares fall, are far from handsome. They are the slaves of the man who purchases them for a horse or the skin of a bison. The great Sioux nation numbers about thirty-five thousand individuals.
The same gentleman from whom we have just been quoting, was enabled to make some observations among the Crows, a tribe of Prairie Indians who are neighbours of the Sioux. Their features are broadly marked, their stature gigantic, and their frames athletic, while, according to M. Simonin, their majestic countenances recall the types of the Roman Cæsars as we see them delineated on antique medals.
The traveller was admitted into the hut of the chiefs, where the “Sachems” were seated in a circle, and as he touched their hands successively, they uttered a guttural “a hou,” a sound which serves as a salutation among the Red Skins. He smoked the calumet.
These men had their cheeks tattooed in vermilion. They were scarcely covered; one had a woollen blanket, the next a buffalo hide or the incomplete uniform of an officer, while the upper part of another’s body was naked. Several wore collars or eardrops of shells or animals’ teeth. Hanging from the neck of one was a silver medal bearing the effigy of a President of the United States, which he had received when he went on a mission to Washington in 1853; and a horse, rudely carved in the same metal, adorned the breast of another of their number.
M. Simonin was afterwards present at a council of the Crow Indians, but we do not intend to give any report of this conference of savages, of which, however, the reader may form some idea by casting a glance at fig. 214.
In dealing with the relations existing between the wild Indians of North America and the civilized inhabitants, that is to say, the Americans of the United States, M. Simonin enters into some interesting reflections which we believe we ought to reproduce.
“A singular race,” says M. Simonin, “is that of the Red Skins, among whom Nature has so lavishly apportioned the finest land existing on the globe, a rich alluvial soil, deep, level, and well watered; still this race has not yet emerged from the primitive stage which must be everywhere traversed by humanity at the outset – the stage of hunters and nomads, the age of stone! If the Whites had not brought them iron, the Indians would still use flint weapons, like man before the Deluge, who sheltered himself in caverns and was contemporary in Europe with the mammoth. Beyond the chase and war, the wild tribes of North America shun work; women, among them, perform all labour. What a contrast to the toiling, busy population around them, whose respect for women is so profound! This population hems them in, completely surrounds them at the present day, and all is over with the Red Skins if they do not consent to retire into the land reserved for them.
214. – CROW INDIANS IN COUNCIL.
“And even there will industry and the arts spring up? How poorly the Red race is gifted for music and singing is well known: the fine arts have remained in infancy among them; and writing, unless it consists in rude pictorial images, is utterly unknown. They barely know how to trace a few bead patterns on skins, and although these designs are undoubtedly often happily grouped and the colours blended with a certain harmony, that is all. Industry, apart from a coarse preparation of victuals and the tanning of hides and dressing of furs, is also entirely null. The Indian is less advanced than the African negro, who knows at least how to weave cloths and dye them. The Navajoes, alone, manufacture some coverings with wool.
“The free Indians of the Prairies, scattered between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, may be reckoned at about a hundred thousand, while all the Indians of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are estimated at four times that number. These calculations may possibly be slightly defective, statistics or any accurate census being quite wanting. The Red men themselves never give more than a notation of their tents or lodges, but the assemblage of individuals contained in each of these differs according to the tribe, and sometimes in the same tribe; hence the impossibility of any mathematically exact computation.
“In the north of the Prairies the great family of the Sioux numbering thirty-five thousand is remarkable above all others. The Crows, Bigbellies, Blackfeet, &c., who occupy Idaho and Montana, form, when taken altogether, a smaller population than the Sioux – probably about twenty thousand. In the centre and south, the Pawnees, Arapahoes, Shiennes, Yutes, Kayoways, Comanches, Apaches, &c., united, certainly exceed forty thousand in number. The territories of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico are those which these hordes overrun. The Pawnees are cantoned in Nebraska, in the neighbourhood of the Pacific Railway, and the Yutes in the ‘parks’ of Colorado.
“These races possess many characteristics in common; they are nomadic, that is to say, they occupy no fixed place, live by fishing, or above all by hunting, and follow the wild buffalo in its migrations everywhere.
“A thoroughly democratic régime and a sort of communism control the relations of members of the same tribe with each other. The chiefs are nominated by election, and for a period, but are sometimes hereditary. The most courageous, he who has taken the greatest number of scalps in war or has slain most bisons, the performer of some brilliant exploit or a man of superior eloquence, all these have the right to be chosen chiefs. As long as he conducts himself well a chief retains his position; if he incur the least blame his successor is appointed. Chiefs lead the tribes to battle, and are consulted on occasions of difficulty, as are also the old men. The braves are the lieutenants of the chiefs, and hold second command in war. There is no judge in the tribes, and each one administers justice for himself and applies the law at his own liking.
“All these nations hunt and make war in the same manner, on horseback; with spear, bow and arrows, in default of revolvers and muskets, and using a buckler as a defence against the enemy’s blows. They scalp their dead foe and deck themselves with his locks; pillage and destroy his property, carry away his women and children captives, and frequently subject the vanquished, above all any white man falling into their hands, to horrible tortures before putting him to death.
“The squaws to whom the prisoner is abandoned exhibit the most revolting cruelty towards him, tearing out the eyes, tongue, and nails of their victim; burning him, chopping off a hand to-day, and a foot to-morrow. When the captive is well tortured, a coal fire is lighted on his stomach and a yelling dance performed round him. Almost all Red Skins commit these atrocities phlegmatically towards the Whites when engaged in a struggle with them.
“Tribes often make war among themselves on the smallest pretext, for a herd of bisons they are pursuing, or a prairie where they wish to encamp alone. They have not indeed any place reserved, but they sometimes wish to keep one so, to the exclusion of every other occupant. Nor is it uncommon for the same tribe to split itself into two hostile clans. A few years ago the Ogallallas when maddened by whisky fought among themselves with guns, and have been broken up ever since into two bands, one of which, the ‘Ugly-Faces,’ is commanded by Red Cloud, and the other, by Big-Mouth and Pawnee-Killer.
215. – PAWNEE INDIANS.
“The languages of all the tribes are distinct; but perhaps a linguist would recognize among them some common roots, in the same way as in our own day they have been found to exist between European tongues and those of India. These languages all obey the same grammatical mechanism; they are ‘agglutinative,’ or ‘polysynthetic,’ and not ‘analytic’ or ‘inflected,’ that is to say, the words can be combined with each other to form a single word expressing a complete idea; but relation, gender, number, etc., are not indicated by modifications of the substantive. I pass over the other characteristics which distinguish agglutinative from inflected languages. The dialects of the Red Skins have not, or seem not to have, any affinity in the different terms of their vocabulary, which is, besides, often very limited.
“In order to comprehend each other the tribes have adopted by common accord a language of signs and gestures which approximates to that of the deaf and dumb. In this way all the Indians are capable of a mutual understanding, and a Yute, for instance, can converse without difficulty for several hours with an Arrapahoe, or the latter with a Sioux.
“The Whites are not acquainted with the languages of the Prairie Indians, or know them very badly. Frequently, there is but one interpreter for the same tongue, often a very poor one, merely understanding the idiom he has translated, not speaking it. Many, à fortiori, are not able to write the language which they interpret. Neither Dr. Mathews, John Richard, nor Pierre Chêne could spell for me in English characters the names of the Crow chiefs. How would it be in the case of the Arrapahoes or Apaches, whose strongly guttural speech is only accentuated by the tips of the lips?
“In all this it must be understood that I speak only of the tribes of the Prairies, and not of those who lived in olden times on the declivities of the mountains overlooking the Atlantic or skirting the Mississippi. The majority of the latter are, as is known, extinct, the Algonquins, Hurons, Iroquois, Natchez and Mohicans, and it is also well to avow that France has contributed in a large measure to their disappearance.
“The residue of these tribes, which I shall term Atlantic – Delawares, Cherokees, Seminoles, Osages, and Creeks – is now cantoned in the reserves, especially in the Indian Territory, where little by little the Red Skins are losing their distinctive characteristics. Histories and authentic documents regarding all these races are extant, whilst only very little is known up to the present concerning those of the Prairies. The greater part of the legends and traditions with which people endow them are only due to the invention of travellers.
216. – A CHAYENE (SHIENNES) CHIEF.
“It is towards a new territory analogous to the one just mentioned, and bordering upon it, that the Commissioners of the Union have recently pushed back the five great nations of the south; while they intend to indicate a reserve of the same kind in the north of Dacota to the Crows and the Sioux, if they find them well disposed to accept it.
“And then, people may say, what will become of the Indians? For this is the question which every one asks when he hears the Red Skins spoken of. If the Prairie tribes go into the reserves, the same will happen to them which has befallen those of the Atlantic borders; little by little they will lose their customs, their wild habits; they will yield insensibly to the sedentary and agricultural life, and, step by step – last phase, of which the first example remains to be seen – their country will pass from the rank of a territory to that of a state. Arrived at this final stage the Indian will be altogether blended with the White; after a few generations he will not perhaps be more distinguishable from him than the Frank is discernible from the Gaul among us, or the Norman from the Saxon in England.
“But if the Indian does not submit; if he will not consent to be cantoned in the reserves? Then must ensue a death-struggle between two races differing in colour and customs, a merciless war of which, unfortunately, so many examples have already been seen on the same American soil. Where are now the Hurons, Iroquois, and Natchez, who amazed our ancestors? The Algonquins, who had no limits to their territory, where and how many are they to-day? All have gradually disappeared by disease or warfare.
“The war which will break out this time will be short, and it will be final, for in it the Indian will finally sink. He has on his side neither science nor numbers. Undoubtedly, by his ambushes, by his flights, by his isolated and totally unforeseen attacks, he bewilders scientific warfare, and the most able strategists of the United States, with General Sherman at their head, have been beaten by the Indians, who have gained no small share of glory against the Whites. But the next war will be no longer one of regulars but of volunteers. The pioneers of the territories will arm themselves, and if the Red man demands tooth for tooth, eye for eye, the Whites will inflict upon him the inflexible penalty of retaliation, and the Indian will disappear for ever.”
217. – A YUTE CHIEF.
In the narrative of his travels from the Mississippi to the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, made in 1853, M. Mollhausen has given various details concerning the remnants of the nearly extinct Atlantic tribes.
The Choctaws, to the number of twenty-two thousand souls, are spread over the regions bordering on Arkansas on the east, the plains inhabited by the Chicksaws on the south, and those occupied by the Creeks on the west, while their neighbours to the north are the Cherokees.
The vast plains which adjoin the Choctaw territories, are used for the pastimes of the Indians, and especially for their game of ball or tennis. The Choctaws, Chicksaws, Creeks, and Cherokees are passionately attached to this amusement. A challenge borne by two able performers usually gives rise to the festival, and having arranged the day for the contest, the players dispatch their heralds to all quarters. These emissaries are tattooed horsemen, accoutred in a fantastic style. Carrying a ceremonial racket, they repair from village to village and hut to hut, proclaiming throughout the entire tribe the names of the individuals who have proposed the match, and making known the day of the struggle and the place of meeting. As each of the actors is accompanied by his relatives, half the nation is often found assembled at the appointed locality on the eve of the solemn day, some to take part in the fray, and the others to bet upon the result. This game (fig. 218) is a tremendous tussle, a general scrimmage in which almost the whole tribe is engaged.
Between the Canadian border and Arkansas, sprinkled with flourishing farms, is the fertile domain of the Creek Indians. It is not so long since the warriors there covered themselves with whimsical tattooing; but progress has to-day penetrated into these savannas, and these same Indians to-day read a newspaper printed in their language.
Like the Choctaws, the Creeks formerly inhabited Alabama and Mississippi, which they ceded for a pecuniary consideration to the American government. Their numbers do not amount to more than twenty-two thousand.
A similar estimate may be made of the Cherokees, who have abandoned New Georgia for higher Arkansas.
Further off are the Shawnees, a nation which is reduced to about fourteen hundred members, and yet was once one of the most powerful in North America. They were the first to oppose resistance to the encroachments of civilization, and hunted from everywhere have strewn the bones of their warriors along their route.
218. – CHOCTAW INDIANS PLAYING BALL.
The Delawares, who have diminished to the insignificant total of eight hundred individuals, originally inhabited the eastern parts of the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Their fate resembled that of the Shawnees; being ever obliged to subdue new territories which they were afterwards compelled to yield to the government. Driven from the plains which contained the tombs of their forefathers, deceived and betrayed by the strangers, the Delaware Indians have repelled Christian missionaries. Placed at the extreme limits of civilization, on the very border of virgin nature, they devote themselves fearlessly to their adventurous propensities. They go to hunt the grizzly bear in California, the buffalo on the plains of Nebraska, the elk at the sources of the Yellowstone, and the mustang in Texas, scalping a few crowns on their way. A Delaware only requires to see a piece of land once, in order to be able to recognize it after the lapse of years, no matter from what side he may approach it; and wherever he sets his foot for the first time, a glance suffices to enable him to discover the spot where water should be sought for. These Indians are admirable guides, and on their services, which cannot be too dearly paid for, the existence of a whole caravan often depends.
Comanches.– The great and valiant nation of the Comanche Indians, which is divided into three tribes, overruns in every direction the vast expanse of the Prairies: outside those green savannahs they would be unable to live. Those of the north and of the centre are ever hunting the buffalo, and the flesh of that animal constitutes almost their sole sustenance. From the most tender childhood till advanced age they are in the saddle, and a whip and bridle render the Comanche the most expert, agile, and independent of men. They gallop in thousands over the Prairies hanging to the sides of their steeds, and directing their arrows and spears with marvellous skill at their mark. They plume themselves on being robbers, attack the establishments of the Whites, lead men, women, and children away prisoners, and carry off the cattle.
Fig. 219 represents two Comanche Indians; fig. 220, one of their encampments, and fig. 221, a buffalo hunt among the same tribe.
Apaches.– The Apache nation is one of the most numerous of New Mexico, including many tribes, several of which are not even known by name.
219. – COMANCHE INDIANS.
The Navajoes belong to this group. They are the only Indians of New Mexico who keep large flocks of sheep and pursue a pastoral life. They know how to weave the wool of their flocks, of which they manufacture thick blankets fit to compete with the productions of the west, twisting bright colours into these rugs in a way that imparts to them a very original appearance. Their deerskin leggings are made with the utmost care, and have thick soles and a pointed end, shaped like a beak, a necessary precaution against the thorny cactus plants with which the soil bristles. Their head-gear consists of a leathern cap in the form of a helmet, adorned by a bunch of cock’s, eagle’s, or vulture’s feathers. In addition to bows and arrows, they carry long lances which they handle very skilfully as they dash along on their fleet steeds.
220. – A COMANCHE CAMP.
In the last rank of the Apache nation are to be placed the tribes of the Cosninos and Vampays, thievish, savage, and suspicious hordes with which it has been found impossible to establish any relations, and who are natives of the mountains of San Francisco. Cedar-berries, the fruit of a species of pine-tree, and the grass and root of a Mexican plant, constitute their means of subsistence, for they are wretched hunters.
221. – A BUFFALO HUNT.
Within sight of the Rio Colorado M. Mollhausen encountered some Indians belonging to the three tribes of the Chimehwebs, Cutchanas and Pah-Utahs, who bear a resemblance to each other. Their complexion was dark in colour, their faces striped with bistre, and their black hair hung down their backs in locks which were confined with wet clay. They were of fine stature, and perfectly naked but for a waistband. They bounded forward like deer to meet the travellers, and their expression of countenance was frank, kind, and merry. Their women on the contrary were small, thickset, and clumsy, but their large black eyes and pleasant manners gave them a certain charm.
The travellers also fell in with the Mohawk Indians (fig. 222), men of herculean forms who were tattooed from the roots of the hair to the sole of the foot in blue, red, white and yellow, and with eyes that glowed like coals under this layer of paint. Most of them wore vulture’s, magpie’s, or swan’s feathers on the top of their heads, and carried large bows and spears in their hands.
Mr. Catlin made numerous excursions among the Indian tribes of the plains of Columbia and Upper Missouri, and we shall quote presently his remarks concerning the Nayas and Flat-Heads.
Both these nations dwell to the west of the Rocky Mountains, occupying all the country situated round Lower Columbia and Vancouver’s Island. The latter tribe derives its name from the singular custom which exists among them of flattening their children’s heads at their birth.
The Flat-Heads (fig. 223) live in a region where very little in the way of food is to be found except fish, and their lives are spent in canoes. The artificial deformity which constitutes the national characteristic is to be found more especially among the women, with whom it is almost universal; but it is only a question of fashion, and does not appear to have any perceptible effect on the functions of the organs, for persons whose heads have been compressed seem as intelligent as those who have not undergone this strange operation.
222. – MOHAWK INDIANS.
Mr. Catlin says: —
“In the course of the year 1853 I found myself on board the Sally Anne, a little vessel flying the star-spangled flag, which having made a few trading cruises along the coast of Kamtschatka and Russian America, was on her way to land in British Columbia several passengers who had been attracted thither by the reputation of the auriferous deposits newly discovered in that country.
“On the third day from our entry into Queen Charlotte’s Sound, the long and magnificent strait separating Vancouver’s Island from the continent, we got into the long-boat to go on shore, and arrived at the village of the Nayas. The Indians had been informed of our visit and were all assembled in their huts; the chief, a very dignified man, being seated in his wigwam, with lighted pipe, ready to receive us. We squatted ourselves on mats spread upon the ground, and whilst the pipe was being passed round – this is the first ceremony on such occasions – hundreds of native dogs – half wolves, – which had followed in our track, completely invaded the approaches to the wigwam, barking and howling in the shrillest and most mournful manner. The sentinel whom the chief had stationed at the door to prevent anyone entering without permission, discharged an arrow at the leader of the band, piercing him to the heart, a proceeding which calmed the rest of the pack, which was then dispersed with many blows of oars by the Indian women. We were not a little embarrassed at having no other way of expressing our thoughts than by signs, yet we seemed to understand each other perfectly, and we gathered that the chief had sent to a village at no great distance in search of an interpreter who ought very soon to arrive. I recommended my companions not to breathe a word before his arrival as to our object in visiting the locality, and in the meantime did not myself lose an instant in endeavouring to rouse the interest of our hosts.
“I motioned to Cæsar to bring me the portfolio, and having seated myself beside the chief, opened it before him, while I gave an explanation of each portrait; he expressed no great surprise, and yet took an evident pleasure in examining them. I showed him several chiefs of the Amazons, as well as others of the Sioux, Osages, and Pawnees. The last likeness was a full-length one of Cæsar, on seeing which he could not restrain himself from bursting into the most tremendous fits of laughter, and turning towards the subject of it who was sitting opposite, signed to him to approach, gave him a grasp of the hand and made him place himself beside him. These drawings excited great animation in the assemblage; three or four under-chiefs were anxious to see them, and the chief’s wife and their young daughter came close to us for the same purpose.
223. – FLAT-HEAD INDIANS.
“One detail of their toilette attracted Cæsar’s attention: a man had a round slip of wood inserted in his under lip and the chief’s daughter also carried a similar ornament. Like Cæsar, my companions were ignorant of this strange and incredible custom, and contemplated the Indians thus adorned, with the utmost astonishment.
“The chief’s daughter wore a magnificent mantle of mountain-sheep’s wool and wild-dog’s hair, marvellously interwoven with handsome colours in the most intricate and curious patterns, and bordered all round with a fringe eighteen inches deep. The making of this robe had occupied three women during a year, and its value was that of five horses. The bowl of the pipe which the chief passed round, was of hard clay, black as jet and highly polished, and both it and the stem were embellished with sketches of men and animals carved in the most ingenious manner. I have seen several of these pipes, and have had many in my possession, with their eccentric designs representing the garments, canoes, oars, gaiters, and even the full-length likenesses of their owners. These designs of the Nayas are different from all those we saw among the other tribes of the continent. The same ornaments are found on their spoons, vases and clubs; on their earthenware, of which they make a great quantity; and on everything else manufactured by them. Up to the present these figures are inexplicable hieroglyphics to us, but they possess great interest for archæologists and etymologists.
“I did not find in this Naya Chief the same superstitious dread which the Indians of the Amazon and of other parts in the south of America evinced when I asked them to have their portraits taken; on the contrary he said of his own accord to me: ‘If you think any of us worthy of the honour, or handsome enough to be painted, we are ready!’ I thanked him; Cæsar went for my box of colours and my easel, and I began his likeness and that of his daughter, for he had told me how much he loved this child, adding that it was his rule to have her almost always with him, and that he thought I should do well to draw them together, both on the same canvas. I agreed to his request, telling him at the same time how much I appreciated such natural and noble feelings on his part.
224. – NAYA INDIANS.
“… As we neared the village a great crowd came to meet us, and I noticed that the throng, especially the women, attached themselves to the steps of Cæsar as he marched solemnly along, his tall figure drawn up to its full height, and with the portfolio on his back. So large were the numbers for so small a village, that I asked the interpreter to explain what this signified. He told me that the news of our arrival and the attraction of the dance which was sure to take place in the evening had drawn and would still draw a vast concourse of Indians from the adjoining districts. At sunset we partook of a meal of venison in the chief’s wigwam, and afterwards set ourselves to smoke until night came on. Then in the midst of dreadful yelling, barking, and singing, we saw about a dozen flaming torches approaching the hut in front of which the dance of masks now began. Grotesque is an imperfect word to convey an idea of the incredible eccentricities and buffoonery that took place before us, and Cæsar was seized with such a fit of laughing as to be almost choked. Picture to yourself, fifteen or twenty individuals, all full-grown men, masked or tricked out in the most extraordinary guise, while many spectators, placed in the first rank, were costumed in similar style. A great medicine man was the conductor of the revels and the most whimsical of all. He represented the ‘King of the Bustards,’ another was ‘Monarch of the Divers,’ a third, ‘Doctor of the Rabbits;’ and there were also the ‘Brother to the Devil,’ the ‘Thunder-Maker,’ the ‘White Rook,’ the ‘Night-travelling Bear,’ the ‘Soul of the Caribout,’ and so on, until the names of every animal and every bird were entirely exhausted. The dancers’ masks, of which I procured several, are very ingeniously made. They are cleverly hollowed from a solid block of wood in such a way as to fit the face, and are held inside by a cross-strap which is taken between the teeth, thus enabling the voice to be counterfeited and disguised; they are covered, moreover, with odd patterns in various colours. With the exception of that of the leader of the dance, all these masks had a round piece of wood in the under lip, to recall the singular custom which exists in the country. Entertainments of this description are not confined to the Nayas, for I have witnessed similar recreations in many other tribes in North as well as South America.