This custom does not take place among the males. Those of the higher parts of Peru wear long and flowing hair, which they reckon a great ornament. In the lower parts of the fame country they cut it fhort, on account of the heat of the climate; a circumftance in which they imitate the Spaniards. The inhabitants of Louisiana pluck out their hair by the root, from the crown of the head forwards, in order to obtain a large forehead, otherwife denied them by nature. The rest of their hair they cut as fhort as poffible, to prevent their enemies from feizing them by it in battle, and alfo to prevent them from cafily getting their scalp, fhould they fall into their hands as prifoners.

The whole race of American Indians is diftinguished by thickness of fkin and hardness of fibres; circumstances which probably contribute to that infenfibility to bodily pain for which they are remarkable. An inftance of this infenfibility occurred in an Indian who was under the neceffity of fubmitting to be cut for the ftone. This operation, in ordinary cafes, feldom lafts above four or five minutes. Unfavourable circumftances in his cafe prolonged it to the uncommon period of 27 minutes. Yet all this time the patient gave no tokens of the extreme pain commonly attending this operation he complained only as a perfon does who feels fome flight uneafinefs. At laft the flone was extracted. Two days after, he expreffed a defire for food, and on the eighth day from the operation he quitted his bed, free from pain, although the wound was not yet thoroughly closed. The fame want of fenfibility is obferved in cafes of fractures, wounds, and other accidents of a fimilar nature. In all these cases their cure is eafily effected, and they seem to fuffer lefs prefent pain than any other race of men. The fkulls that have been taken up in their ancient burying-grounds are of a greater thickness than that bone is commonly found, being from fix to feven lines from the outer to the inner fuperficies. The fame is remarked as to the thicknefs of their fkins.

It is natural to infer from hence, that their comparative infenfibility to pain is owing to a coarfer and stronger organization than that of other nations. The cafe with which they endure the feverities of climate is another proof of this. The inhabitants of the higher parts of Peru live amidft perpetual froft and fnow. Although their cloathing is very flight, they fupport this inclement temperature without the leaft inconvenience.' Habit, it is to be confeffed, may contribute a good deal to this, but much alfo is to be afcribed to the compact texture of their skins, which defend them from the impreffion of cold through their pores.

The northern Indians refemble them in this refpect. The utmoft rigours of the winter feafon do not prevent them from following the

chace

chace almost naked. It is true, they wear a kind of woolen cloak, or fometimes the skin of a wild beaft, upon their fhoulders; but besides that it covers only a small part of their body, it would appear that they ufe it rather for ornament than warmth. In fact, they wear it indifcriminately, in the feverities of winter and in the fultriest heats of fummer, when neither Europeans nor Negroes can fuffer any but the flightest cloathing. They even frequently throw afide this cloak when they go a-hunting, that it may not embarrafs them in traverfing their forefts, where they fay the thorns and undergrowth would take hold of it; while, on the contrary, they slide smoothly over the furface of their naked bodies. At all times they go with their heads uncovered, without fuffering the least inconvenience, either from the cold, or from those coups de foleil, which in Louisiana are so often fatal to the inhabitants of other climates.

DRESS. The Indians of South America diftinguish themselves by modern dreffes, in which they affect various taftes. Thofe of the high country, and of the valleys in Peru, drefs partly in the Spanish fashion. Inftead of hats they wear bonnets of coarse double cloth, the weight of which neither feems to incommode them when they go to warmer climates, nor does the accidental want of them feem to be felt in fituations where the moft piercing cold reigns. Their legs and feet are always bare, if we except a fort of fandals made of the fkins of oxen. The inhabitants of South America, compared with thofe of North America, are defcribed as generally more feeble in their frame; lefs vigorous in the efforts of their mind; of gentler difpofitions, more addicted to pleasure, and funk in indolence.-This, however, is not univerfally the café. Many of their nations are as intrepid and enterprifing as any others on the whole continent. Among the tribes on the banks of Oroonoko, if a warrior aspires to the poft of captain, his probation begins with a long falt, more rigid than any ever obferved by the most abftemious hermit. At the clofe of this the chiefs affemble; and each gives him three lashes with a large whip, applied fo vigorously, that his body is almoft flayed. If he betrays the least symptom of impatience, or even of sensibility, he is difgraced for ever, and rejected as unworthy of the honour. After some interval, his conftancy is proved by a more excruciating trial. He is laid in his hammock with his hands bound faft; and an innumerable multitude of venomous ants, whofe bite occafions a violent pain and inflammation, are thrown upon him. The judges of his merit ftand around the hammock; and whilst thefe cruel infects faften upon the moft fenfible parts of his body, a figh, a groan, or an involuntary motion expreffive of what he fuffers, would exclude him from the dignity of

which

which he is ambitious. Even after this evidence, his fortitude is not deemed to be fufficiently afcertained, till he has stood another teft more fevere, if possible, than the former. He is again fufpended in his hammock, and covered with the leaves of the palmetto. A fire of ftinking herbs is kindled underneath, fo as he may feel its heat, and be involved in fmoke. Though fcorched and almost fuffocated, he must continue to endure this with the fame patient infenfibility. Many perish in this effay of their firmness and courage; but fuch as go through it with applaufe, receive the enfigns of their new dignity with much folemnity, and are ever after regarded as leaders of approved resolution, whose behaviour, in the moft trying fituations, will do honour to their country. In North America, the previous trial of a warrior is neither fo formal nor fo fevere: Though, even there, before a youth is permitted to bear arms, his patience and fortitude are proved by blows, by fire, and by infults, more intolerable to a haughty spirit than either.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Of the manners and customs of the North Americans more particularly, the following is the most confiftent account that can be collected from the best informed and most impartial writers.

When the Europeans firft arrived in America, they found the Indians quite naked, except thofe parts which even the most uncultivated people ufually conceal. Since that time, however, they generally use a coarse blanket, which they buy of the neighbouring planters.

Their huts or cabins are made of stakes of wood driven into the the ground, and covered with branches of trees or reeds. They lie on of floor either on mats or the fkins of wild beafts. Their dishes are timber; but their spoons are made of the fkulls of wild oxen, and their knives of flint. A kettle and a large plate conftitute almost all the whole utenfils of the family. Their diet confifts chiefly in what they procure by hunting; and fagamite, or pottage, is likewife one of their most common kinds of food. The most honourable furniture amongst them is the fcalps of their enemies; with those they ornament their huts, which are esteemed in proportion to the number of this fort of fpoils.

The character of the Indians is altogether founded upon their circumftances and way of life. A people who are conftantly employed in pro curing the means of a precarious fubfiftence, who live by hunting the wild animals, and who are generally engaged in war with their neighbours, cannot be fuppofed to enjoy much gaiety of temper, or a high flow of fpirits. The Indians therefore are in general grave even to fadnefs; they have nothing of that giddy vivacity peculiar to fome nations of Europe, and they defpife it. Their behaviour to thofe about them is regular, 3

regular, modeft, and refpectful. Ignorant of the arts of amufement, of which that of faying trifles agreeably is one of the most confiderable, they never fpeak but when they have fomething important to obferve; and all their actions, words, and even looks, are attended with some meaning. This is extremely natural to men who are almoft continually engaged in pursuits which to them are of the highest importance. Their fubfiftence depends entirely on what they procure with their hands; and their lives, their honour, and every thing dear to them, may be loft by the smallest inattention to the defigns of their enemies. As they have no particular object to attach them to one place rather than another, they fly wherever they expect to find the neceffaries of life in greatest abundance. Cities, which are the effects of agriculture and arts, they have none. The different tribes or nations are for the fame reason extremely small, when compared with civilized focieties, in which induftry, arts, agriculture, and commerce, have united a vaft number of individuals, whom a complicated luxury renders useful to one another. Thefe fmall tribes live at an immense distance; they are feparated by a defert frontier, and hid in the bofom of impenetrable and almost boundlefs forefts.

GOVERNMENT. There is established in each fociety a certain species of government, which over the whole continent of America prevails with exceeding little variation; because over the whole of this continent the manners and way of life are nearly fimilar and uniform. Without arts, riches, or luxury, the great inftruments of subjection in polished societies, an American has no method by which he can render himself confiderable among his companions, but by superiority in perfonal qualities of body or mind. But as Nature has not been very lavish in her personal distinctions, where all enjoy the fame education, all are pretty much equal, and will defire to remain fo. Liberty, therefore, is the prevailing pasfion of the Americans; and their government under the influence of this fentiment, is better fecured than by the wifeft political regulations. They are very far, however, from defpifing all fort of authority; they are attentive to the voice of wisdom, which experience has conferred on the aged, and they inlift under the banners of the chief in whofe valour and military addrefs they have learned to repofe their confidence. In every fociety, therefore, there is to be confidered the power of the chief and of the elders; and according as the government inclines more to the one or to the other, it may be regarded as monarchical, or as a fpecies of ariftocracy. Among thofe tribes which are moft engaged in war, the power of the chief is naturally predominant; becaufe the idea of having a military leader was the first fource of his fuperiority, and

the

the continual exigencies of the ftate requiring fuch a leader, will con. tinue to support, and even to enhance it. His power, however, is rather perfuafive than coercive; he is reverenced as a father, rather than feared as a monarch. He has no guards, no prifons, no officers of juftice, and one act of ill-judged violence would pull him from the throne. The elders, in the other form of government, which may be confidered as an aristocracy, have no more power. In fome tribes, indeed, there are a kind of hereditary nobility, whofe influence being conftantly augmented by time, is more confiderable. But this fource of power, which depends chiefly on the imagination, by which we annex to the merit of our contemporaries that of their forefathers, is too refined to be very common among the natives of America. In most countries, therefore, age alone is fufficient for acquiring refpect, influence, and authority. It is age which teaches experience, and experience is the only fource of knowledge among a barbarous people. Among those perfons bufinefs is conducted with the utmost fimplicity, and which may recal to thofe who are acquainted with antiquity a picture of the moft early ages. The heads of families meet together in a houfe or cabin appointed for the purpofe. Here the business is difcuffed; and here thofe of the nation, diftinguished for their eloquence or wifdom, have an opportunity of difplaying those talents. Their orators, like thofe of Homer, exprefs themfelves in a bold figurative style, stronger than refined, or rather foftened, nations can well bear, and with geftures equally violent, but often extremely natural and expreffive. When the business is over, and they happen to be well provided with food, they appoint a feast upon the occafion, of which almost the whole nation partakes. The feaft is accompanied with a song, in which the real or fabulous exploits of their forefathers are celebrated. They have dances too, though, like those of the Greeks and Romans, chiefly of the military kind; and their mufic and dancing accompany every feaft.

To affift their memory, they have belts of small shells, or beads, of different colours, each reprefenting a particular object, which is marked by their colour and arrangement. At the conclufion of every fubject on which they difcourfe, when they treat with a foreign state, they deliver one of those belts; for if this ceremony fhould be omitted, all that they have said passes for nothing. Those belts are carefully depofited in each town, as the public records of the nation; and to them they occafionally have recourfe, when any public conteft happens with a neighbouring tribe. Of late, as the materials of which thofe belts are made have become scarce, they often give fome fkin in place of the wampum (the name of the beads), and receive in return prefents of a more va

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