The Otomaques are the only Indians who allow their women to join in their public diversions, but, notwithstanding they indulge them at intervals in this particular, yet, with respect to domestic drudgery, they place them upon the same footing with the rest of their country women.

Polygamy.

They are likewise the only Indians who have not admitted of polygamy. Among them every husband is confined to one wife; and what is extraor dinary, young men are always married to old women, and old men to young girls; for houshold affairs, in their opinion, are better managed, when the inexperience of youth is put under the direction of the prudence of old age.

All the other Indians take as many wives as they think proper, and their number does not in the smallest degree tend to mitigate the misery and oppression of their abject situation; it seems to be the whole object of their lives to support their common husband in idleness and drunkenness. The chiefs have most wives; and amongst some nations they are the only persons who have more than one.

Divorce.

It would not be expected that men, who entertain the most sovereign contempt for women, should attach much value to their fidelity, for, according to a maxim commonly received on the subject of love,

jealousy is an indication of ardent attachment. Yet, by a fatality inseparable from the lot of the Indian women, the same man who discovers no charm in their persons, punishes them for being able for a moment to engage the partiality of another. Amongst the Caribbees, both delinquents are publicly put to death by the people; but amongst the greater part of other nations, the offended husband retaliates on the wife of the offender, and the revenge falls nothing short of the offence.

Exchange of Women.

There are some nations to be seen, where husbands exchange wives with one another for a limited time, at the expiration of which time they take them back again without the smallest difficulty arising between the contracting parties.

Education of Children.

The manners of the Indians sufficiently indicate what sort of education fathers bestow upon their children; it is sufficient to have seen what bad husbands they are, to be able to judge what bad fathers they must prove. From the tenderness which they manifest for their children in their earlier days, one' would think they were no strangers to parental affection, and were sensible of the duties imposed by the paternal character; but these demonstrations have no other motive than fear lest their offspring should die in childhood. As soon as

they are strong enough to procure for themselves the means of subsistence, all that they have further to expect from the father is an example of laziness, drunkenness, falshood and treachery. The male children commonly leave their father's house at the age of twelve and do not return to it till they are eighteen.

Hatred of Sons against their Fathers.

There exists not in the world a more unnatural son than an Indian. Far from loving and respecting the author of his birth, he entertains a mortal hatred against him; he frequently waits with impatience for such an increase of his own strength, and diminution of his father's, as will enable him to lift up his criminal hand against him; and such atrocities are allowed to pass with impunity.

We cannot but admire divine justice, when we observe that this hatred of the children is never directed against the mother; witnesses of her sufferings, and companions of her unhappy life, till they attain the age of manhood, they cherish sentiments of pity towards her, which time matures into tender

ness.

Dress.

No costume appears so beautiful to an Indian as to have his whole body painted with red. Oil and rocou are the ingredients which compose the paint, and every one applies it either with his own hand, or

:

night. The same routine of exercises was repeated every day. At Terra Firma, no other Indian nation is known to have presented the spectacle of a similar republic, more proper to give a lesson of concord and sound morals to certain civilized states, than to receive any from them. The misfortune is that it has lost almost all the purity of its primitive institutions, so that hardly a trace remains of them..

Indians who eat Earth.

It is observed that the Otomaques are amongst the most voracious of the Indians; it is easy to account for this from their mode of living. They are accused of eating earth, and the charge is founded on fact; but according to their primitive system of administration, it appears that that strange habit is retained more from taste than necessity. It is true, according to father Gumilla, that it is a particular kind of earth kneaded and mixed with alligator or other fat, and which afterwards undergoes some sort of cooking, which prevents it from being hurtful to the body. He neglected to tell that the fat is only mixed with the earth which is prepared for the chief. All the vagrant tribes who are found on the borders of Meta likewise eat earth. There are some on the banks of the Casiquiare who even make ants their principal nourishment.

Food of the Indians.

Next to the Otomaques the Guaraunos, who inhabit the islands which are formed by the mouth of

the Oronoko, enjoy the most comfortable subsist

ence.

Their position insures them as much fish as they please. They have besides a kind of palm they call murichi, which abundantly furnishes bread, wine, &c. &c. but, in general, the subsistence of the wild Indians is neither abundant nor at all seasons equal.

The chace is subject to casualties, and fishing is not less so; besides, they both depend on the weather, and the fruits have likewise their season; to all this, let the improvident spirit of the Indians be added, and we shall see that they would frequently be under the necessity of prolonging their sleep, for want of victuals to eat, unless providence had provided them with such resources, as are indispensable for a people who hate labour.

Turtle Fishery.

Every year, on the fall of the waters of the Oronoko, which begins in the month of February, millions of turtles deposit their eggs among the sands on the beach of the river, and wait till they are hatched, and the young ones far enough advanced not to require their assistance: at this period all the Indians, in the neighbourhood of the Oroncko, repair with their families to its borders, in order to catch turtles, which they preserve by drying them at the fire. They use the same precaution with the eggs, excepting that part of them from which they extract an oil no wise inferior to sweet oil of the first quality. All these articles, besides a sufficient stock of provision, afford a surplus to be employed in barter with Indians at a