ften disfigured by ornaments. The
ears are small, quite the reverse of those of the Indians of the flat
lands. The pointed chin is only sparingly covered with beard, which does
not appear until advanced age, and on the cheeks there is none. The hair
of the head is long, stiff, and of a brilliant black. Many of the tribes
dye their hair; the Chunchos dye it red, and the Antis are said to dye
it blue; as to the latter color it appears to me improbable, but I
mention it on the authority of Friar Leceta. The skin is fine and soft,
the color a deep rusty brown. In speaking of the South American Indians,
it is usual to describe their skin as copper color, but this term is
incorrect, for there certainly is no single tribe to which it might be
perfectly applicable. It appears to me that the color of all is much
fainter, and tending more to brown or yellow. "Rusty brown," if the
expression may be used, appears to me far more descriptive.

The second natural section of the wild Indians inhabits the northern
part of the Pampa del Sacramento, the banks of the Ucayali, and of the
Maranon. They are smaller than those just described. There is a
certain peculiarity in the make of these people; for though they are
broad over the shoulders yet their chests are flat, and their shoulder
blades lie low. Their limbs are lank, and their hands rather small;
the soles of the feet are broad and flat. The face is broad, the eyes
long shaped, the pupil deeply set, the nose is flat, with large
oblique nostrils, and the cheek-bones are prominent. The mouth is
wide, the lips thick, and among some tribes the mouth and nose are
very close together. The chin is small and round, the ears large and
standing out from the head. The hair and beard of these Indians are
the same as in those of the hilly country. The color of the skin
varies much; in some it is a light reddish brown; in others, a kind of
yellow, very like that of the Mongols. The women of all these tribes
are exceedingly ugly, and far from corresponding with the picture a
European imagination might form of the daughters of the aboriginal
forests. These women soon become old, for they not only fulfil female
duties, but execute the greater part of those severer labors which
ought to fall to the share of the stronger sex.

To the above outline sketch of the human inhabitants of the aboriginal
forests, I will now add some description of the animal world, as it came
under my observation in those lu