Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/256

 of the Tucúnas of St. Paulo, who were scarcely distinguishable from Passés in all the features mentioned. It is remarkable that a small tribe, the Caishánas, who live in the very midst of all these superior tribes, are almost as debased physically and mentally as the Múras, the lowest of all the Indian tribes on the Amazons. Yet were they seen separately, many Caishánas could not be distinguished from Miránhas or Jurís, although none have such slender figures or are so frank in their ways as to be mistaken for Passés. I make these remarks to show that the differences between the nations or tribes of Indians are not absolute, and therefore that there is no ground for supposing any of them to have had an origin entirely different from the rest. Under what influences certain tribes, such as the Passés, have become so strongly modified in mental, social, and bodily features, it is hard to divine. The industrious habits, fidelity, and mildness of disposition of the Passés, their docility and, it may be added, their personal beauty, especially of the children and women, made them from the first very attractive to the Portuguese colonists. They were, consequently, enticed in great number from their villages and brought to Barra and other settlements of the whites. The wives of governors and military officers from Europe were always eager to obtain children for domestic servants: the girls being taught to sew, cook, weave hammocks, manufacture pillow-lace, and so forth. They have been generally treated with kindness, especially by the educated families in the settlements. It is pleasant to have to record that I never heard of a deed of violence perpetrated, on