e of the family who was able to realize what took place was
terrified at our approach, and never got over his terror as long as we
remained. He suffered from the illusion that everybody wished to murder
him. For some reason or other he believed that I had come specially, all
the way from my own country, in order to search for him and kill him. All
the most considerate words on my part, the showering of presents, had no
effect upon him. He sat some way off, watching me attentively all the
time, and whenever I moved my hands in any direction he dashed away
shrieking, thinking that I should attempt to strangle him--for his mania
was death by strangulation. After a while he returned, and in his broken,
almost unintelligible language--his tongue was nearly paralyzed and he
had difficulty in articulating properly--begged to be spared.

Those people lived worse than animals--in an appallingly filthy
condition, in two miserable, tumble-down sheds, open on all sides, and
not more than 8 ft. high. They were reduced to that condition by
intermarriage among themselves; brothers with sisters--a most frequent
occurrence among the "civilized" of Central Brazil--and even fathers with
daughters and sons with their mothers: a disgusting state of affairs
which could not very well be helped in a race and in a climate where the
animal qualities were extraordinarily developed while the mental were
almost entirely deficient. Worse still, I had several cases under
observation in which the animal passions had not been limited to closely
related human beings, but extended also to animals, principally dogs. The
degeneration of those people was indeed beyond all conception. It was
caused, first of all, by the effects of the most terrible corruption of
their blood, their subsequent impoverishment of blood through
intermarriage, the miserable isolated existence which they led on scarce
and bad food, the exposure to all kinds of weather, and the absolute lack
of thought--almost paralyzing the brain power. It was heart-rending to
think that human beings could possibly degenerate to so low a level,
and--what was worse--that beings of that kind were extraordinarily
prolific; so that, instead of being exterminated--which would be a mercy
for the country--they were in a small way on the increase.

I camped near the sheds of that "happy family," having gone 42 kil. from
the Rio das Mortes. I felt sad the whole night, watching them
unperceived. It upset me