ing poisons and poisoned arrows.

He is good-tempered and good-hearted, and never quarrels with his wife.
I have never heard of one of these savages beating his wife or children,
or of ill-treating them in any way and neither of using violence with
any one else unless with a declared foe or one who has offended his
sentiments and superstitions.

One day I ordered a child to do something, I don't remember what, and he
answered me impertinently with a curt _neay_ (no). I turned to his
mother who was present and told her that the boy ought to have his ears
boxed.

The woman gave me a look of mingled wonder and irritation, then said:
"You are a bad man if you would hurt my son when he did not mean any
harm!".

Yet in spite of this kind of reasoning and the clemency shown towards
children (which would make a pedagogue of the educational rod system
commit suicide) the Sakais are honest and respectful to their parents
and the old; they are affectionate in their family and, poor savages!
are still a long way off from such a degree of civilization as to cut up
a cross wife or a troublesome lover into pieces and send them in a
mysterious valise to take a sea-bath or in a butcher's sack to take a
fresh water one in a convenient river.

But the answer given me by the boy and his mother's implicit approval
were only the decisive affirmation of that indomitable spirit of freedom
that animates the Sakai and makes him do what he likes but never what
others command.

In fact, even taking him as a guide or travelling companion it is always
wise to let him have his own way without interfering at all. He will
rest, eat, smoke, and walk on just as he chooses and if you contradict
him in his desire he will turn his back upon you and abandon you in the
midst of the forest.

Every act of his life reveals and marks this mania of independence. I
will quote a rare case. Should a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law not
be able to agree in consequence of the difference in their characters no
tragic scenes or petty quarrels occur; the young couple merely take up
their scanty belongings, destroy their own hut and march off to build
another at a sufficient distance to avoid troublesome contact or the
possibility of further misunderstandings and discord.

It is so: nobody will submit to the will of another and even when
settling some particular question unless they are all of the same
identical opinion the matter has to be abandoned.

Sons-