of their drinks which are--of the singular number.

The inhabitants of the forest drink nothing but water but this they
require clear and fresh. Should it not be perfectly pure in colour and
taste they will not drink it. They always seek a spring to satisfy their
thirst and supply their families with the necessary liquid.

Sometimes, when I was first living amongst them, I happened to stoop
over a torrent or stream to drink some water but my companions protested
vehemently declaring that it might do me a great deal of harm.

They are afraid of poisons in every shape and form as they are also of
contagion and would even be frightened if in drinking they were to touch
their bamboo bottles and glasses with their lips. They are very clever
in pouring the contents down their throats without letting the
receptacle come in contact with their mouths, an accomplishment which we
should not be able to achieve until after many damp trials.

It might almost be desired that our civilization would imitate this
hygienic custom of the savages. How many infections the less! How much
fewer the microbes that poison the blood of our poor people!

The Sakais do not drink milk, not only from the difficulty in obtaining
it but also from a strange prejudice which I have never succeeded well
in understanding.

Once they are weaned they never swallow a single drop of milk.

Neither do they drink alcoholic beverages for the simple reason that
they have not got them and do not know what they are.

If they should ever come to taste them and procure them easily will they
not crave for them like all other savages?

As soon as the Sakai's frugal meal is finished he fills his mouth with
tobacco, or if he has none, with sirih.

[Illustration: Resting from work.

_p._ 123.]

This is composed of a leaf or two of betel--a plant that possesses a
certain narcotic virtue--smeared with lime and rolled up round a little
tobacco and a piece of areca nut. Both men and women chew these quids
with great relish, spitting out the juice from time to time.

The old people, whose want of teeth makes mastication next to
impossible, put the ingredients into a bamboo and pound them until they
are reduced to, what they consider, a delicious paste.

* * * * *

The young Sakai reaches the height of his vigour at about eighteen years
old, after which he has a brief stationary period, followed by a rapid
falling off that I think mu